Little mortgage query

donal1981

Hi. I am going to attempt to do a self build this year. I plan to borrow 250 000 Euro mortgage. I would like a fixed mortgage for 2 or 3 years.
Does anyone know the cheapest place to look for this?
Are there any good Irish comparison web-sites or guides?
Is a fixed mortgage wise in the climate of probable future cut in interest rates?
Thank you

homer911

Cant advise on rates going up or down, but the papers regularly carry best buys in Financial products.

Per last Friday's IT: Best Buy 3yr fixed is BOS @ 5.08% APR
Best Buy 5yr fixed is AIB @ 5.14% APR
(Based on 250k over 20 years)

tHE vAGGABOND

Speak to a good mortgage broker. They should have all the answers to the questions you ask for! Be careful about 'experts' on the internet

With regards to who, there is a broker or two in every town in the country. I know personally I went with one I knew who had done good work with mates in the past. All I would say is to make sure the broker is dealing with circa 10+ lending institutions. You want as much choice etc as possible.

In a nutshell tho, the rates you get offered change from person to person. It also depends big time on how much of a deposit you will have. Speak to a broker about all this. The financial regular has good help web pages on the various terms and options [while not covering the day to day rates etc].

Personally I would not fix my mortgage, but each to their own! I may save in the short term but get shafted in the long term - but I'm willing to take that risk. I know one lad who has fixed for 5 years, thinking he will make out well overall [I think he is wrong, but again, each to their own]

donal1981

Thanks for that

bobk

The bank of scotland may have the best APR, but is far from the best 3 year fixed rate.

BOS rate is 4.89% (APR 5.08%) repayment over 35 years is €1,195
AIB rate is 4.7% (APR 5.18%) repayment over 35 years is €1,166

I know which one I would prefer.

APR isn't an accurate way of comparing fixed rates as costs are minimal during the actual fixed period.

If you revert to a rate that you don't like after the fixed period, then switch your provider.

Best 5 year fixed is with AIB with at 4.82% (APR 4.92%)


Buy Thursday's irish times. All the rates are published in the property section

stepbar

bobk wrote: »

The bank of scotland may have the best APR, but is far from the best 3 year fixed rate.

BOS rate is 4.89% (APR 5.08%) repayment over 35 years is €1,195
AIB rate is 4.7% (APR 5.18%) repayment over 35 years is €1,166

I know which one I would prefer.

APR isn't an accurate way of comparing fixed rates as costs are minimal during the actual fixed period.

If you revert to a rate that you don't like after the fixed period, then switch your provider.

Best 5 year fixed is with AIB with at 4.82% (APR 4.92%)


Buy Thursday's irish times. All the rates are published in the property section

I hope you're not encouraging all your customers to be going for 35 year mortgages :eek: Chances are if you can barely afford a 25 year mortgage then you shouldn't be going for a 35 year one.

tHE vAGGABOND

I hope you're not encouraging all your customers to be going for 35 year mortgages Chances are if you can barely afford a 25 year mortgage then you shouldn't be going for a 35 year one.

Something EVERYONE forgets here is that next to no one completes the term of their first mortgage. I dont know where you live or what age you are. But it does not matter. Ask around your own mates, or the mates of your brothers and sisters. Ask the people who have had any kind of gaff for anywhere in or around 3 or 4+ years..

I would bet a new Atari Jaguar that a *gigantic* percentage of those people are not on the same mortgage they started with. They have remortgaged [I know one lad who seems to do it yearly] or they have traded up or moved gaff to live with bird/bloke or move near work etc etc etc

When you buy your first place its all about keeping the payments as low as possible, so you can kit the place out and decorate and all that fun stuff.

As you move on in life you can remortgage and pay more and reduce the term or sell or whatever...

[A great example is a mate of mine who bought a nice 4 bed in Lucan about 5 years ago. His mortgage was a 35 year jobbie at ball park 800 a month at the time, and he was CRIPPLED. We never saw him, as he had not a bean to his name. He has remorgaged 2 or 3 times since then and with promotions at work and all that he pays 1800 euro a month odd now, and his term is 20 years odd]

stepbar

In fairness Vaggabond, if you seen the amount of people I've seen up to their eyes in debt you're views might be changed. I would NEVER advise a customer to take out a 35 year mortgage. Granted, people get promotions, pay increases etc and some do get by but it's bad lending practice to have people stretched beyond their means. At the end of the day people have to live. Going month to month is not advisable. Comparing lending practices 5 years ago to now is ridiculus TBH.

ther27

I would be careful with insurance brokers and I would certainly speak to the banks directly. It is easy to calculate the costs yourself. We are hoping to use a lot of our own savings to bring down the cost of the mortgage. A good website is:

bobk

ther27 wrote: »

I would be careful with insurance brokers and I would certainly speak to the banks directly. It is easy to calculate the costs yourself. We are hoping to use a lot of our own savings to bring down the cost of the mortgage. A good website is:

I'd be careful with insurance brokers as well if you are applying for a mortgage.
Don't go to a butcher for a mortgage either.

You need to go through an independent mortgage broker who has access to at least 6 or 7 lenders.

It is easy to calculate costs, but what about eligibility? Banks don't make their criteria public knowledge and this is where the benefit of a broker comes in.

In order to save yourself a lot of time and money seek independent broker advise and ask them to show you all the available rates.

You can cross reference this with the rates published in the Irish Times property section every Thursday.


Some brokers will also offer incentives to get the business done with them

parsi

What worries me is that it seems that folk often don't factor in the effects that having children will cause.

We're halfway through our mortgage but I do remember a time when childcare costs were a very significant part of our outgoings and for a while exceeded our mortgage.

Anecdotally a lot of people seemed to have been granted large mortages with long terms based on future incomes with additional "rent-a-room" income - there's no way that income was going to be available when junior turned up.

bobk

parsi wrote: »

What worries me is that it seems that folk often don't factor in the effects that having children will cause.

We're halfway through our mortgage but I do remember a time when childcare costs were a very significant part of our outgoings and for a while exceeded our mortgage.

Some banks will actually give a borrowers more money if they have children as they will be eligible for children's allowance.

parsi wrote: »

Anecdotally a lot of people seemed to have been granted large mortages with long terms based on future incomes with additional "rent-a-room" income - there's no way that income was going to be available when junior turned up.

This is true, but one could argue that people rent out a room to help them in the first few years of purchasing the house so they can finance new furniture, etc. It's unlikely that most people will have tenants living with them over the entire course of the mortgage.

stepbar

bobk wrote: »

Some banks will actually give a borrowers more money if they have children as they will be eligible for children's allowance.

Yeah those who lend to Michael Lynn and the sort...... The lending practices in some banks is shocking. Anyone who would count child benefit as income should be shot / must be real desperate to get a mortgage. I know my bank would discard it.