imove Cornwall, Warns of Looming Interest Rate Increases

imove Cornwall, the UK’s first not-for-profit estate agents has today warned home owners in Cornwall that the days of low interest mortgage repayments may be coming to an end.

An interest rate rise to halt high inflation is on the cards, experts have warned.
The Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, yesterday signaled that families should prepare for a rise, ending two years of historic low interest rates.
“Higher mortgage repayments could be a major problem for homeowners in Cornwall, who have been led into believing that their monthly mortgage repayments would stay low for years” says Senior Partner of imove Cornwall, Mark Green.
“The Bank of England has predicted a gloomy outlook which may see interest rates rise, affecting a large number of families in Cornwall”
A rate rise to 1 per cent would increase monthly repayments on an average £150,000 variable rate mortgage by £43 a month or £516 a year
Two-thirds of homeowners in the UK have a variable rate mortgage, meaning nearly eight million households would pay more.
On top of the possible interest rate rise warnings, the Bank of England has painted a bleak picture of elevated  inflation, rising energy bills and slow economic growth.

Senior Partner Mark Green says “My concern is, those families who are already struggling to make ends meet may have to think seriously about down-sizing their property or moving to a cheaper area.  But this may prove difficult to accomplish whilst the property market is still somewhat depressed and the cost of moving house is prohibitive for many people” 

“The average cost of estate agency services in Cornwall is around £5000 + VAT” says Green.  “For many people that £5000 is all they have left in their property to enable them to move”

One solution is to use a low-cost online estate agency service.

“Online agents are able to significantly reduce the cost of selling a property, because their overheads are so much lower than a traditional high street agent.  Imove Cornwall has been specifically setup to help people in Cornwall and with a one-off upfront cost of just £399 (with no VAT) we are able to save people thousands of pounds”

Imove Cornwall is a not-for-profit online estate agents serving the Cornish community.  Setup as a social enterprise, imove’s profits are donated to local charities, such as Children’s Hospice South West and other local good causes.

For more information please visit : www.imovecornwall.org