Fixed rate are the most popular mortgage deal says London Mortgage Broker, London Mortgage Advice Tuesday, 30th June 2009

87 per cent of home owners opting for this type of product as fixed-rate mortgages are dominating this sector of the loans market.

In the second quarter of 2009 there was a 16 per cent rise in consumers opting for fixed-rate mortgages, according to Legal and General's Mortgage Purchase Index.

"Who could blame [consumers]? Margins on these products are high and it's almost a cast-iron certainty that when the base rate next moves, it will be upwards." says Stephen Smith of Legal and General. Adding that fixed-rate mortgages will give home owners "valuable peace of mind" in "turbulent" economic times and warned that with rates on the rise now could be the time to seize such products.

To glean an overall picture of the market, Legal and General's Mortgage Purchase Index tracks trends from thousands of mortgage providers around the UK.

Barclays announced that it is raising the cost of fixed-rate mortgages for new customers, reported the Daily Telegraph, earlier this month.

Depending on the type of fixed-rate mortgage being taken out, rates on this kind of product at Barclays were raised from between 0.2 and 0.7 of a percentage point,.