Mortgage options changing fast, what to do

[IucyB]

After being in rented for a long time (fled DV) I am finally in a position to buy a small flat (before I get too old for a mortgage, I'm a first time buyer). I have had my offer accepted and am now sorting out mortgage. Of course with the turmoil in the markets (due to the horrific war going on. I know that I am privileged to be even buying somewhere to live) this is not a great time to look for a mortgage. Some of the mortgage products I was considering have been withdrawn from the market.

I wonder what everyone else is doing - waiting to see if things get any better, getting a mortgage now in case things get worse etc. Any thoughts on what is going to happen in the mortgage market if the war continues or ends soon. I am sure there are much better informed people on here than me.

Can I get an actual mortgage offer prior to having offer accepted on a house that I want to buy?

How long might this be valid for, and how do I know how much money to get this for?

The Ten Year Yield, banks use it as a gauge to set mortgage rates.

Thanks @KeepPumping!

This isn"t how the market works, UK government might have seemed all powerful when they were co-ordinating with all the other central banks to cut rates during 2008 and Covid but everyone is out for themselves now, even before this kicked off the spectre of Japan raising rates was pushing UK mortgage costs higher. House prices don"t control the bond market, the bond market controls house prices.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-20/key-uk-yield-hits-highest-level-since-2008-as-oil-prices-climb

A lot of very sensible articles now popping up in the media discussing the basics of debt and house prices, coincidence or letting people know what to expect? This is the stuff that should be taught at school, the knowledge people need BEFORE getting into mortgage debt.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/gilt-yields-the-hidden-driver-of-house-prices/ar-AA1Z21RB

Looks like the Ten Year Yield has broken through the 5% level, this isn"t like the Truss Wobble though, then they could just reverse policy.

Nobody knows what’s going to happen, but at the moment, interest rates are expected to rise later in the year, so I would lock into a mortgage asap if I were you.

While there’s a possibility that house prices will drop slightly, I wouldn’t count on it. For a significant drop in prices you need a lot of forced sellers, and for a variety of reasons that’s unlikely.

I bought in 2020 when everyone on here said it was a crazy time to buy because house prices were about to crash - they never did. Meanwhile, I fixed my mortgage at 2% for 5 years and paid off a significant chunk. If I’d waited, prices and interest rates would both have gone up, and I would have been in a much worse position. The best time to buy is always as soon as you can imo.

Prices won"t go up with higher interest rates, you bought when interest rates were at 100 year lows. March 2020 was the lowest interest rates ever on record in the UK!

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/1485/interest-rates/historical-real-interest-rate/

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/mar/19/bank-of-england-holds-interest-rates-iran-war-inflation

As a mortgage adviser, get your application in asap - I've been working 15 hour days all week to get clients applications in on time with 7 lenders withdrawing their products just today. They're 1% more ish than they were this time 2 or 3 weeks ago. Apply, then reassess nearer the time, or ask a broker to do it for you and they will keep an eye on the situation and reduce when rates start to come down, however we're not sure when this will be. Good luck xx

@BeKeenRaven- I’ve got a mortgage broker, but I haven’t yet had an offer accepted on a house. Can I apply for a mortgage now anyway?

one thing I would reccomend is to get homebuyer insurance
it’s only around 100
you fsn get it personally or through your solicitor / conveyancer

it’s useful if your sale falls through
there are different levels depending on what you need
so if your survey is 700
make sure the homebuyers insurance goes up to 750 for surveys
and if your sellers change there mind and you have spent 1k on solicitors fees you can get this back depending on what level you have

def worth it if your doing a survey / or your in a chain as you can claim this back minus the excess

people will be very flakey and cautious at the moment when buying / selling

thank you @BeKeenRaven good to know. Hope your working hours calm down!
@previouslyknownas I'll look at this today.
A lot of my situation (I'm a FTB so of course no chain) will rely on the sellers' position (and as they are early in the stage of trying to find somewhere to buy this could be an issue).

Yes, they will need to get back to 5% + ASAP, they should never have started trying to cut again, all that has done is lure even more people into debt they can"t afford. 5% base rate, 7 or 8% mortgage rates would be a good balance, but of course it could go much higher.

@KeepPumping

It’s pointless explaining how the bond market works on here.
People justify short timeframes (like 5 years from 2020). This place is full of the over leveraged that are trying to justify over paying within the last 5 years or estate agents with a vested interest.

Where’s Twiggy now that used to argue against me explaining how yields work whilst they were citing mainstream media articles narrative of cutting rates 4 times for 2026?

4 rate hikes now look more likely, but that would get us back to 4.75% or something, LOL, that isn"t enough is it, the long term average is around 5% and they have been much much higher. When SKY news is telling people to brace for higher rates you really know the world has changed.

Things will always change. You lock in a rate for a short amount of time and then change in a few years, getting a mortgage will always be better than paying rent to a landlord! Newspapers need headlines to sensationalise and get readers… if you’re in a position to buy… buy!

People who did that are now coming off fixes onto higher rates?

Do it - we moved at the worst time for rates but we priced that in by buying a cheaper property and don’t regret it to get a suitable roof over our head. But do think about what’s the max rate you could handle - as others have posted it’s wise to think about how high a rate you could afford to cover monthly payments for if you do a 2 year fix then rates are even higher at the remortgage point.

@KeepPumpingthats why you need to plan in advance. So many scared and worried people. Get a mortgage, buy (make calculations if rates go up) and pay into your future not into a landlords pocket. Never a right time to buy. If rates are low they will still go up at some point!

Yes you can (and should) apply for a mortgage as soon as you start looking at houses. You'll get a "mortgage in principle" - how much you can borrow. As the OP has found though mortgage products can be withdrawn at short notice but if you have MIP in place its quicker to get another rate sorted out.

Thanks @Stillreadingalot- I think I was asking a silly question. I do have a mortgage agreement in principle.

You are not really buying with mortgage debt though? If the house makes a loss you are trapped in the mortgage (and the house) plus you pay interest on the loss! People can"t afford mortgage debt now let alone with future rate hikes, use any online mortgage calculator to check this for yourself, pick an area, check the local wage and then look at the pages of overpriced rubbish for sale, no wonder half these houses are not selling! There have not been meaningful rate rises for decades, there are generations of people now with no concept of the price of money.

With renting the landlord cover repairs and leasehold issues plus rents are driven by wages and demand (that is why they are now falling as rental supply rises) where mortgage debt is priced by the bond market and can get very very expensive, really not worth the risk on an average property any more.

Very likely though that offers you make will be "down-valued" ( hate that word) by the lender.

@KeepPumpingthen don’t ever buy a house. If you can’t make an intelligent and informed decision to buy a property and get a mortgage then there will never be a safe time to buy and you will always be scared to get a mortgage. If you do your research and sums then you will be fine. I’m both a landlord and tenant and I’d much rather live in a property that I owned that rent and pay someone else’s’ mortgage for the rest of my life and then be out on my ear when they decide to sell!