The popularity of fixed rate mortgages continued to wane in November, with only 21.3% of John Charcol clients opting for a fixed rate.

This is five percentage points lower than the October figure and most clients who opted for a fixed rate took a two-year fix, with nearly all the rest choosing a five-year deal. This is the smallest market share for fixed rates since October 2008 and continues the rapid decline from their recent peak market share of 83.1% in June.

These figures are taken from the John Charcol Index, the monthly mortgage activity monitor from John Charcol.

Ray Boulger of John Charcol said: “The cost of both fixed and variable rates fell in November as a result of some increased competition from lenders. Although fixed rates fell a little further than trackers the difference in the initial pay rates still assumes Bank Rate will increase more quickly than many economists predict and on most interest rate forecasts a good tracker will cost less more than a comparable fixed rate over at least the next two to three years. Indeed only last week Roger Bootle