UK mortgage rates rollercoaster is the price to pay for cheap, short-term deals

Borrowers who made a short-term choice after the 2008 banking crisis were lucky – current borrowers have been equally unlucky

As mortgage lending rates surge to levels not seen since the banking crisis, some borrowers are wondering whether there is something to be said for the certainty of fixing the borrowing rate for the full term of the loan.

In 2007 two of the UK’s biggest lenders launched 25-year fixed-rate mortgages. They were responding to a call from the then chancellor, Alistair Darling, who suggested consumers would be better off if they did not have to find a new deal every two years, typically paying charges each time.