5yr or 10yr fix?

[RightHereRightNow2017]

We're hoping to secure our 'forever' home and I'm unsure whether to fix for 5 or 10yrs. Obviously the 5yr repayments are lower but who knows where the market will be next year never mind in 5yrs! Interested to hear what others are doing?

We recently fixed for 5, I would have fixed for 10 but we're looking at moving back to Germany so didn't want to tie in too long. The rate was also very different. If you can comfortably afford the 10 years rate then that's a lot of piece of mind.

My mortgage broker told me that he a lot of clients having to pay ERC to get out of 10 year fixes. 10 years is a hell of a time. You might need to move for work, to be closer to family, because of financial problems or umpteen other reasons during that time. A five year fix is still a decent amount of time but I think it's a compromise between flexibility, lower repayments and having to pay for the mortgage applications every few years.

I went for the 10 year fix as I need to be sure of as many of my outgoings for that long and it gives me peace of mind. If I have to move I can port it over to a new house. And the interest rate was still pretty rock bottom so whichever way interest rates go, I feel I'm in a pretty strong position.

Get a portable 10yr fix, that's what we will do. Interest rates can only go one way!

10 years if portable. We took out a 5y fix two years ago and are porting it with us to our new house. The only thing to be aware of, is making sure you are with a lender who is likely to give you what you might want in the future. Although our new property is technically well without our borrowing limit for many lenders, our lender has pretty tight criteria, and we could not have bought as much as we might have been able to with another lender.

Go variable.
RAtes are not going any where in the next ten years

How do I know ?
Because I look at the DMO (Debt management office) website daily and they are offering 20 year fixed rate loans to councils at under 3%

A variable mortgage will have lower fees and rates
and you can always fix at a later date
but I never did when I had a mortgage (and the rate rose to 15% for one month !!!!)