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Base rate update on Mortgages - two weeks on

At long last there is scrap of good news for borrowers on variable rate mortgages linked to standard variable rates, with just over 50% of mortgage providers (53 lenders) having already signalled their intention to cut rates.

23%of mortgage providers that have reduced their mortgage rates have reduced them by less than 0.25%. The list includes Northern Rock which cut by 0.15% and Cheshire BS which dropped its rate by 0.20%.

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10 mortgage lenders have reduced their standard variable rate below 7%, with Stafford Railway BS currently the lowest in the market at 6.34%.

21% of those mortgage lenders that have announced changes will delay the change of rates for new mortgage borrowers to the start of next year.

It is important to look at how many mortgage products that some lenders currently offer are linked to standard variable rates. Many of the larger mortgage lenders have been quick off the mark to drop their mortgage rates by the full 0.25%. If you look at little more closely, you will discover that many of these don't currently offer many new mortgage products linked to standard variable rate. Gloucester and Northern Rock don't offer any mortgage products linked to their own standard variable rates at present, leaving only Abbey from the top five mortgage lenders with seven mortgage products linked to standard variable rate.

We are still waiting on a number of the mortgage lenders that offer the larger range of standard variable rate linked mortgages, such as Leeds BS, Cumberland BS and Norwich and Peterborough BS to announce their decisions. Some mortgage borrowers were anticipating some good news will have to be patient for a little longer until they find out their revised monthly mortgage repayment.

Those looking to take out a variable rate mortgage need to be aware that this is a time where the mortgage market is in a state of flux. One mortgage rate may look better than another simply because it has taken a cut and another hasn't. If you can hang in there a further two weeks until things have settled down, it will be easier to work out which are the best mortgage deals.

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