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We have waited to produce January’s update until (a) everyone was back at work finally and (b) for the Bank of England to announce their decision on interest rates.

Not moving the Base Rate this month disappointed a large group of people who are concerned about the economy and who have significant debts but in the medium term interest rates seem likely to will fall two or three times this year to leave us with a sub 5% rate by the end of the year.

It will be particularly disappointing for those borrowers who are about to receive significantly increased credit card bills from the credit card companies as unsecured lending will be the cause of more financial woes in 2008 than mortgage interest rate changes.

This is not to say that the shock of moving from a 4% fixed rate to a 5.5% fixed rate is not significant as dealing with a 30% increase in mortgage costs is not easy but it is the credit cards which worry us more especially those people who have been relying on 0% interest deals who now may not be able to switch to such an offer again.

Looking back at 2007, it was a highly successful year for our business. 2007 was a year in which we celebrated 25 years of Chase De Vere mortgage broking and in which we applied for a record amount of mortgages of £1.2bn. During the year, we used more than 85 lenders and our average loan was approximately £280K. Looking over the last 25 years of application history, we have enjoyed an average a growth in mortgage volumes of 18% per annum. It would be fantastic for our business to grow by another 15% – 18% this year but this may be difficult in today’s environment.

The early signs in our first full week of trading is that there is a pent-up demand for our clients to remortgage not only because their current arrangements are coming to an end but also because they want to either remove all their other indebtedness to keep their finances under control or raise more money as they are confident about their circumstances and want to be able to take advantage of any dips in the housing market.

Our 35 experienced advisers are all back from their Christmas break and talking to clients about changing markets every day. Many of them have worked for us during several peaks and troughs in the market and have all the experience which you may require to assist you whatever your circumstances today.

With the liquidity crisis continuing in world financial markets, some lenders are starting to restrict the maximum loan to value which they will lend and tightening up their criteria compared to the more liberal attitude which they have adopted over the last few years.

As a result, many borrowers are finding that products which they thought had unfettered access to are finding it more difficult to get the facilities which they require. This explains why our brand and our advisers can be of such enormous added value in these uncertain times. I would urge you to contact your existing account manager here or, if you are a new client, telephone our main telephone number and ask to speak to a suitable adviser.

Our next monthly update will come on 7th February, which should the day the Bank of England announce their next decision which most people would bet now would be a cut in rates.

In the meantime, if you have any further queries, please contact us as shown above or email me at simon.tyler@cdvmm.com.

11th January 2008