There is more to attracting borrowers than cheap rates

Mortgages are undoubtedly very easy to get these days. Of course, the days are long gone when borrowers had to queue for loans and then hope that the length of their relationship with the lender would swing the loan for them. Now, there is not even the need to have a savings account with the lender. Rather the competition between the various lenders for business is intense.

Indeed, the institutions are so keen to lend that pre-guaranteed car and other loans are now commonplace. NIB is even promoting a new home equity release scheme. Borrowers are allowed to take up loans of up to 80 per cent of the value of their home. This can be used for any purpose from sending children to college, buying a second home or indeed a new car or holiday.

The only stipulation is that you must borrow at least £10,000 and repay it over at least five years.

Of course, many borrowers will be using this and similar, although not so heavily marketed, schemes at other lenders simply to come up with the deposit for a home for their children.

But this area of the market is only really a small add-on to the main business of lending money for the main family residence. Here, margins have come down markedly and lenders are having to do their best to woo customers. But, perhaps surprisingly, it is not simply who is cheapest and hence cutting rates which is the most important element of this.

Last week, for example, ICS, the building society owned by Bank of Ireland, announced that it had a 57 per cent increase in its new mortgage business in 1999. ICS is not one of the cheapest lenders, has not had the most innovative products and has certainly not done the most advertising but still it has 7.1 per cent of the mortgage market. Familiarity and service are perhaps some of the key reasons and ICS is still doing well this year and has seen mortgage applications increasing 45 per cent compared with the first three months of last year.

At the other end of the scale, the newest entrant, Bank of Scotland, says it has approved £360 million in mortgages in the seven months since it entered the market. This compares with £392.6 million in new mortgages advanced by ICS in 1999.

So, obviously, having the lowest rate still matters to many people - and Bank of Scotland still offers the cheapest rate on the market; its variable rate now stands at 3.94 per cent. Only TSB and its agent, Tusa, manage to come in below 4 per cent, at 3.99 per cent and 3.75 per cent respectively.

Tusa also appears to be doing well. It distributes its mortgages only through Superquinn stores but the number is expanding all the time. Three new branches were open over the Easter weekend. AIB is also still marking these entrants in a general way with a variable rate of 4.29 per cent.

The majority of the other lenders are more expensive. Bank of Ireland for example is 4.85 per cent, while ICS is offering a variable loan at 4.89 per cent. Irish Permanent is also at 4.89 per cent along with Irish Nationwide. These are the most expensive variable rates on the market.

As the other lenders report their figures over the coming months, it will be interesting to see what it is that matters most to Irish borrowers - cheap rates, a relationship with the lender, service or other factors. The answer could determine quite how cheap rates stay over the longer term.