[2ion]

That's really interesting. Is it normal in UK (thinking £) to get such an extremely short (introductory) loan and then refinance every few years? In Germany, most people take a 10y fixed rate at least to reduce such risk.

[nsteel]

Yes, here 2 and 5 years is the norm. There's talk of longer terms becoming more popular but that's probably just talk due to the current climate of rising rates. I've spoken to a few brokers lately and not one even mentioned anything longer than 5.

It feels like there's a few signs now that the so-called "18-year property cycle" is due to be cut short this time around. I've only recently heard the idea so I'm not sure how it's real it is (outside of their circles that have a vested interested in the timeline it predicts). UK lenders seem to be now toughening lending rules rather than relaxing them as they were "supposed" to. Not sure it's a good time to invest or not!

[lmt55]

7 and 10 years are quite widely available now, although they're still not particularly popular.

Not sure why brokers didn't mention them to you. Perhaps they like to show people low headline rates, or perhaps they see longer initial terms as bad for the broking business?

[robga]

Not only that, it’s popular to get “tracker” mortgages. It’s the Bank of England base rate plus a fixed rate. So it’s never actually fixed. My “Lifetime Tracker” is BOE+1.29% for 25 years. So it’s varied from 1.39% to 2.04% total charge in the last 10 years. If you bought a lifetime tracker today it would be BOE+2.7%. 20 years ago they were as good as BOE+0.25%