HSBC was the
mortgage lender that offered the best value
mortgage deals in 2005, according to new research.
The bank was the only one of the big four
high street banks that made in the list of top 15
mortgage lenders compiled by
financial research firm Defaqto.
It offers the cheapest standard
variable mortgage rate of all top 30
mortgage lenders, the research shows.
A
mortgage borrower that takes out an
interest-only mortgage to the value of £50,000 on HSBC's
standard variable mortgage rate will pay £102.40 less than if the mortgage was borrowed from the second-placed mortgage lender, Intelligent Finance.
These top two mortgage lenders were followed by
Nationwide Building Society. Mortgage lenders
Skipton and
Britannia building societies took the fourth and fifth places.
Defaqto revealed that the
Bank of Scotland was the most expensive mortgage lender when considering standard variable mortgage rates
The research firm's head of banking, David Black, said
standard variable mortgage rates "represent an important benchmark in competitiveness".
He commented to the Press Association: "With
Bank of England base rates on average higher in 2005 than in 2004, it's not surprising that typically it cost five per cent more to service a standard
variable rate mortgage in 2005 than it did in 2004."
