From 8pm Thursday the 20th of April, Coventry for Intermediaries has announced it will be closing products and launching new ones. Brokers and Industry experts have been asked their views and opinions and can be viewed below:
Katy Eatonton, Mortgage & Protection Specialist at Lifetime Wealth Management, said “This is interesting as they reduced all first-time buyer rates at the higher loan-to-value last week. Maybe they are now anticipating a rate rise in May, which is looking more likely after Wednesday’s inflation data. It’s good news that they are reducing offset and interest-only offerings, though, as there is definitely more demand for these products in the current climate.”
Graham Cox, Director at Mortgage Specialist SEMH, said “Coventry could be pre-empting an anticipated base rate increase at the next Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting on May 11th. It seems more likely given the lower-than-expected fall in the headline inflation figure on Wednesday. UK swap rates have also been rising recently, making the cost of wholesale borrowing more expensive for lenders.”
Chris Sykes, Technical Director and Senior Mortgage Advisor at Private Finance Ltd, said “I think this is merely a case of correcting some of the rates that they have currently, as they did a rate reduction last week and have been sourcing quite well across a lot of loan-to-value tiers. They have probably had quite a few applications and are just managing service levels proactively.”
Adam Smith, Founder at Alfa Mortgages, said “This is almost certainly a simple case of a lender scaling back and taking time to process the mound of applications they have had with their reduced rates.”
