The UK economy has been severely impacted by the global pandemic caused by Covid-19. Households have had to quickly learn how to protect their financial health when there was little notice of what was coming at them. Finding ways to save and cut expenses has been a priority with most households and homeowners have found unique opportunities available to do that with remortgaging.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held their June meeting and with it made decisions to help aid the UK economy through the impact of the global pandemic. As expected by economists and other experts, they voted to keep the current standard base rate at the historic low of 0.1% which was set in March. That vote was unanimous between the 9 members. They did choose to vote for a £100 billion stimulus to be added into the bond buying programme at a vote of 8-1.

Homeowners have shown strong demand for remortgaging in the past few months. In the midst of the pandemic it makes sense to look for savings and for most the largest expense to their monthly budget is their mortgage repayments. With a low interest rate remortgage some homeowners could save thousands and with an equity cash release they could put cash into hand.

All eyes will be on the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee Meeting (MPC) that will happen this Thursday, 18 June. The tone of the meeting could reveal what actions are being considered to assist the UK economy through the first global pandemic in over 100 years. It is not expected that there will be any change to the standard base interest rate this meeting, but it could signal if the current rate of 0.1%, a historic low, might be slashed in August.

The latest data on remortgaging was released by LMS and revealed that June is likely to show the continued trend of higher demand from homeowners. The first week of June not only had higher instruction volumes than the first week of May, but also in comparison to the first week of June 2019. There were fluctuations in the data which were blamed on remortgage offices getting back to work in the midst of the reopening while dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, such as the number of remortgage cancellations. It is assumed that legal teams are clearing out old and inactive cases, which is impacting that data.

Homeowners have been encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities in remortgaging that are currently available. With low interest rates available due to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) lowering the standard base interest rate to a historical 0.1%, saving a substantial amount of money was possible for the many looking to boost their household budget. Some may have decided to wait it out since interest rates were low and there was not an expectation of increased rates in the near future and that strategy might have led them to miss out.