The banks are all very blinkered. I'm trying to remortgage my buy-to-let, I have a good income, good tenants paying approx 175% of my monthly mortgage cost, over 50% LTV and yet I can only get the same poor deals on offer to someone with a much smaller LTV. A very frustrated "low-risk" customer!

matt, Poole, UK

"Borrowers need to be quick if the want to secure a deal."

Surely that's the last thing buyers need to be doing?

House prices are falling, and mortgage rates are only going to increase for the foreseeable future. All the signs suggest that a purchase should only be made if it is affordable?

Hassan Azam, Banbury , England

Only a fool would buy a house with prices falling down,,,


as the banks are not fools to lend on property at the moment..

What can we expect, this is normal banking

I just wait to pile into buy to let when the real price is down by 50%

Nicholas Iles, Oswestry, Shropshire

Boom & Correction (bust) has been with us for centuries why do we believe its changed? Brown claimed he has stopped it -note to GB look up King Canute.

If you got in at the end, in over your head, or trying to make a quick killing you will suffer. One can feel sorry for the first 2 only

Jason Pearson, Toronto, Canada

I am all in favour of the Mortgage Lenders' current actions. By the end of the year many of them will be out of business -a loss to no one except their directors who have creamed off billions. Shareholders can merely transfer to a safer investment.Building Societies are no longer necessary.

eric campbell, harrogate , uk

It's good to see Paul from Harrow pointing out the bubble percent fallacy again. We do need to remind ourselves about it at times like these. The point is that if houses go up 100% in value then they only need to fall back 50% to end up where they were originally.

William Boyd, Penygroes, Gwynedd

7% would have been manageable if prices had not risen to such extremes

As I always say, teaser rate and variable rate mortgages should be banned. Then mortgages would be priced on the long term average e.g around 7%.Result - no more boom and bust, for real!

But who dares to regulate the banks?

A Harris, Kettering, UK

Although £575 is indeed 34% lower than £875 it is actually misleading.

Naturally you would wrongly assume that it has gone up by 34%. But actually if you multiply £575 by 54% then you get £875. So your mortgage has actually gone up by 54%.

When house prices go down by 34% need to go up by 54%

Paul, harrow,

Lenders are not making it difficult for FTBs, unrealistic sellers are. I bought my first property for 3x my salary at a mortgage rate of 9%. It wasn't easy but I managed. I couldn't have bought if the price had been 6x my salary, and nor can FTBs now. Sellers have to drop their prices or stay put.

Clive, Chichester, UK

Amazing, the banks created this bubble by encouraging
everyone to borrow more and more, ie low rates, and overleveraging. Now they are going to sting
whoever they can, its about time the greedy management
of the banks are brought to task.

mal mills, London E14, UK

Anthony, of course there is a ladder, otherwise a five bedroom house would cost the same as a flat.

phil, london,

Only two choices : Interest rates moving upwards or an inflationary spiral. Grasp the nettle; Raise those rates.

Eric Skelton, cardiff, wales

There is a bottom to this though: once houses are priced to trade for cash. What was the deposit will become the price. The banks are going to be out of this game for quite a long time.

Michael Holmes, Edinburgh, Scotland

"..a return back to 3.5 times salary lending" if we are lucky, in those days people had pensions, the occasional car, public transport at fair prices and food although local was affordable. Yes aspirations have changed, bringing them and house prices in to the globalised 21 cent. will be some task

Timur, London,

Will people *please* stop talking about 'the property ladder' - that was the sort of thinking that got us into this mess in the first place. There is NO property ladder - just a bubble and it has burst.

Anthony Price, Truro, Cornwall, UK

This will help return house prices back to normal values. Homes were 50% overvalued due to all this loose lending before, we are going to see a return back to 3.5 times salary lending with deposits. End result 50% fall from peak, more sustainable housing market and access for first time buyers.

Gavin, London,

Will they increase rates to savers? I doubt it very much.

Richard, Alicante, Spain

Pure absolute greed. First damage the economy with a foolish attitude to lending, then grasp at any straw (held by the consumer) to rake in money. Shameful. In the event the banks make money this year, I thnik a significant windfall tax would be appropriate and could save GBs skin...

Richard , London,

Now we're in a negative feedback loop. Banks have to reduce LTVs and increase rates and fees to put off applicants. So people can't get a mortgage or remortgage. So house prices fall, so banks mortgage portfolios look more risky, so banks have to reduce LTVs and increase rates and fees...

Crashtime

AndrewS, Brampton,

strange how expected falls in the BOE base rates weren't factored in or reflected in rates, only increases, Mortgage lenders are achieving their greatest margins for 8 years whilst enjoying their lowest levels of exposure and cherry picking their clients. You got to feel bad for them

mark connelly, surbiton, england

And to think everyone was telling me a year ago: "The government won't let a property crash happen."

Dave Ryan, London,

The Bank of England seemingly has little or no control over the UK banks.

As the banks are unfettered in their charging decisions it seems that they have now become at odds with their client base.

However, only the Loancheck Foundation seems to be capable of combating the banks on our behalf.

Ray Goodfellow, Wirral, UK

Not a scam then? Hook people into a mortgage using teaser rates of a couple of percent and then hammer them a few years later by upping the rates substantially resulting in them being repossed and the bank getting the house etc etc.

chris, brighton,