Alliance And Leicester Offer Best Homeowner Loans
For the past couple of years, banks and building societies have been avoiding trying to offer competitive loan products to consumers, in case they started to apply for them. But towards the back end of last year, there was a change in attitude from many lenders, largely due to an increased availability of wholesale funds and increasing house prices, which in turn has led to a welcome increase in competition from lenders on who is able to provide the most competitive home owner loan products.
As a result of this, it has become increasingly confusing and more complicated for someone looking for a new loan to find the best deal to suit themselves.
A new survey, conducted by Evaluate Technologies, has found that over the course of the last three months of 2009, Alliance and Leicester had the most consistent number of best buy loan products available on the market, scoring 23 points on their survey, followed by First Direct with 19 points and Woolwich with 15 points. HSBC came fourth in the survey with 14 points, but the largest UK lender, the Lloyds banking group which includes the Halifax and Cheltenham & Gloucester, did not score any points at all.
Several of the smaller regional lenders, such as the Principality and Mansfield building societies also featured in the survey, showing that many of the smaller, independent lenders still have competitive loan deals. It is interesting to note that Alliance and Leicester home owner loans and mortgages are only available through intermediaries and loan brokers, showing that it is still vitally important to take independent financial advice when looking for a new loan. Julie Speed of Evaluate said “The changes taking place at the top of the best buy tables indicate a good degree of competition in the mortgage market which is going to be key to supporting the property market in 2010.”
