By Enzo Mora CEO and founder of The Mortgage Brain 

At the moment, mortgage rates are changing quite rapidly as lenders access new funding on the markets, so how do you know which mortgage choose if your mortgage rate is ending shortly?

Well we're keeping a close eye on the market, to make sure we get the best and often exclusive offers for our customers.

We're also encouraging borrowers to start a search, with a broker like The Mortgage Brain, six months before your current deal ends.

That way we can secure you a great loan with no strings attached, meaning you can switch to a better option nearer the time, should one become available.

Slowly does it

At the end of 2022, house price growth had slowed, but Rightmove has just reported a slight increase of 0.9% in new seller asking prices this January from December.

Much has been made of a more familiar calmer property market after a rapidly changing and at times chaotic economic climate in the final few months of last year, so let's hope it stays like that. We've started the new year with a blast of new mortgage enquiries, so confidence is still there even if it's a watching and waiting game.

Six figure gains for homeowners

Interesting news from estate agent Hamptons, whose latest research shows that average property sales in England and Wales are making owners a profit of more than £100,000 for the first time. If you sold a house last year having originally bought it within the last 20 years, you could have scooped a gross profit of £108,000, up from £96,220 in 2021.

Hampton's research also showed that a record 94% of sellers sold their property in 2022 for more than they paid for it, having owned it for an average of 8.9 years, and sellers made a six-figure gain in 173 local authorities, 87% of which are in the South of England.

Homes that keep on giving!

Forty years ago, Halifax decided to track house prices when the average UK house price was just £26,188 and the Bank Base Rate was 11%. For those of us who can remember 1983, Margaret Thatcher won a landslide victory for the Conservative Party, we had a heatwave in July reaching 33 degrees, a pint of milk cost 21p and a pint of beer 67p.

The Bank Base Rate now sits at 3.5% and average house prices have grown by 974% to £281,272. Not a bad investment. It's hard for people planning to climb the first rung of the ladder in 2023 to imagine their property being worth so much but time flies quickly and there's no time like the present to see what you can afford to borrow today.

Our expert advisers can help you take those first steps to being a homeowner and the rewards it may bring.

To find out more about The Mortgage Brain, visit www.themortgagebrain.net or call 0333 340 8888.