Insurance firm MarketGuard has claimed that millions of people could be left out in the cold because they aren’t able to remortgage.

High LTV, self-cert, credit impaired and even interest only borrowers are among MarketGuard’s estimated 3.7 million people on variable rates who may find it difficult to remortgage at this time – leaving them exposed in the event of possible rate rises.

Research undertaken by MarketGuard revealed that 2.7 million variable or tracker rate mortgage holders would find it a struggle to meet their mortgage repayments if they were to increase by over £100 a month. This equates to an interest rate rise of just 1% (for a typical interest only mortgage), a worrying prospect for many UK households.

Chris Taylor, CEO of MarketGuard, said: “If interest rates start to move upwards in response to inflationary pressure