Andy Hornby, the boss of Britain's biggest mortgage lender HBOS, predicted yesterday a "fundamental shift" in the lending markets that will leave homeowners paying considerably more for new loans than they have in recent years, The Independent reports.
"Looking forward, we can already see that mortgage pricing is starting to adjust to reflect increased wholesale funding costs," he told a banking conference in London. "Increased mortgage costs to consumers will inevitably lead to a slowdown in the mortgage market." Recent weeks have already seen price increases in some types of mortgages, particularly tracker products, offered by Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Nationwide as well as HBOS's Halifax business. These loans are closely reliant on the short-term money markets, where lending rates have soared above the Bank of England's base rat...
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