"Now that the flood gates have opened, we will only see more lenders looking to join the party as this price war starts to truly heat up."
Virgin has launched a sub-4% 10-year fixed rate mortgage.
The rate of 3.99% is available up to 75% LTV with a £995 product fee.
Newspage asked brokers for their responses.
Justin Moy, managing director at EHF Mortgages: "This is great news and a significant landmark in the current market. Long-term, low loan-to-value fixed rates were always going to be the first to go sub-4%, although for many that may be too long to fix. Either way this is a hugely positive step, and will encourage other lenders to participate. This is all very healthy competition and good news for borrowers."
Amit Patel, adviser at Trinity Finance: "Virgin has launched a 10-year fixed at 3.99% and I expect other lenders to reprice over the coming days on the back of it. This is great news for borrowers who wish to fix in for the long term. However, the early repayment charges will be steep so advice is always paramount."
Austyn Johnson, founder at Mortgages For Actors: "If a 10-year fix works for you, this is good news overall. 10 years is a long time, though, and so much can happen so proper planning is required Things are definitely stabilising in the mortgage market, but there needs to be much more choice for clients before we switch to a 10-year simply due to rate."
Kylie-Ann Gatecliffe, director at KAG Financial: "Virgin releasing a 10-year fixed at 3.99% is another step in the right direction, although clearly 10-year fixed rates are quite a niche area, as many people don't feel comfortable committing to a mortgage rate for that length of time. So while it is a great reduction, I'm hoping we will see a domino effect with five-year and two-year offerings."
Jamie Lennox, director at Dimora Mortgages: "This is a huge milestone having a lender breach fixed rates below 4%. Now that the flood gates have opened, we will only see more lenders looking to join the party as this price war starts to truly heat up. Hopefully this will feed into shorter term fixed rates in the weeks ahead."
Paul Neal, director of mortgages and equity release at Missing Element Mortgage Services: "This is a decent product if you are planning on staying put for the next 10 years, but personally, I rarely know what I'm doing after breakfast so this also has the potential to be very costly if you decide on moving before the 10 years is up."
Aaron Forster, director at Create Finance: "This is the first of many. High Street banks will likely follow suit and bring rates below 4% again. With lender targets refreshed for 2023, this will start a rate war between lenders especially as swap rates are also reducing for longer-term borrowing. I am sure as we go further into 2023, below 4% will become the norm for many High Street lenders even with more expected rate rises from the Bank of England."
Graham Cox, director at self-employed mortgage specialist SEMH: "Today's sub-4% mortgage product launch from Virgin is a sign of the times. Lenders are falling over themselves to maintain transaction volumes in a shrinking mortgage market, even at the expense of profit margins. The question is, will mortgage rates continue to fall? With the base rate likely rising to 3.75 or 4% later this week, I think it's more likely that rates will creep back up a little."
Greig Cowley, mortgage broker at Riverside Mortgages: "This is categorically not a milestone. It's elementary maths. All this tells us is how far five-year SONIA swaps need to reduce by, for five-year fixed rates to drop below the 4% mark. Currently, 10-year SONIA swaps are at 3.306%, while five-year money is still stuck at 3.528%, so it at least gives us as brokers a heads up when five-year fixes may start with a three if we're assuming that most lenders are working to a rough margin of between 70-90 basis points above the SWAP. However, specifically on the Virgin 10-year fix deal, I would not recommend this to anyone, given it's nailed on rates will ease off and continue to fall from the end of this year and throughout the next."
