Lenders offer fixed long-term options

Following the Bank of England's decision to hold its base interest rate this week, two lenders, Yorkshire building society and Chase De Vere Mortgage Management, have come up with the sort of long-term mortgages Gordon Brown extolled in his Budget last month.

Following the Bank of England's decision to hold its base interest rate this week, two lenders, Yorkshire building society and Chase De Vere Mortgage Management, have come up with the sort of long-term mortgages Gordon Brown extolled in his Budget last month.

Yorkshire's is for 15 years at 5.24 per cent, and up to 95 per cent of value. But the Chase contender is aimed very much at the top end of the borrowers' pecking order. It is a 10-year mortgage, fixed at 4.89 per cent, for loans of at least £500,000 and is financed by a leading bank which prefers not to be named. The loan can be transferred to subsequent properties without penalty.

Simon Tyler of Chase De Vere said: "The Bank of England has kept its base rate at 3.75 per cent in a move that will have surprised many commentators who, over the last week or so, have been calling for further base rate cuts. But borrowers are already experiencing the lowest rates of their home-buying lives, and the recent call by the Chancellor for borrowers to think prudently and consider longer-term fixed rates to offer long-term stability has been heeded by an increasing number of borrowers.

"At the higher level of the market there is a desire to have the option to pay off significant amounts of one's mortgage without penalty if one opts for a long-term fixed rate."

Chase, which will arrange loans worth about £1bn this year, will lend up to £3m on the new mortgage, where the rate is fixed until 31 May 2013, but only up to 75 per cent of the value of the property. So to qualify for the maximum loan, the house in question will have to be worth £4m.

Yorkshire, phone 0845 1200 100. Charcol, phone 020 7930 7242.