More mortgage misery as Bristol & West withdraws deals

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by Kay Murchie

The mortgage misery continues as Bristol & West, the British mortgage arm of the Bank of Ireland, has announced it has withdrawn over 25% of its mortgage range.

Earlier this week, Bristol & West launched a number of new deals, only to withdraw seven of its 29 home loans just 24 hours later. The deals were mostly fixed rate and buy-to-let mortgage deals, due to the unprecedented volumes of business received during the past week.

The review will mean the lender’s cheapest buy-to-let deal is 7.19% for a 3-year fixed rate, and comes with a £799 lending fee. The deal is only available to landlords and requires a 25% deposit.

Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) this week show that in the 12 months to May, gross mortgage lending fell by 19%.

First-time buyers are struggling to secure loans as lenders tighten their lending criteria and are demanding huge deposits. The CML said the average deposit paid by first-time buyers rose to 13% in April - this represents the highest level in over 3 years.

Moneyfacts, the financial data compiler, announced this week that the average 2-year fixed-rate mortgage now stands at 6.75%, this represents the most expensive level for a decade.