Mike Powell says homeowners need to make their biggest financial decisions of a decade in minutes
Homeowners due to renew their mortgages are given just 20 minutes to make a decision or risk losing deals, according to a broker.
Many lenders are pulling deals off the market this week ahead of an expected rate hike.
Mike Powell, who runs a brokerage in Caldicot, Monmouthshire, said he had to tell the same client three times that the deal they had agreed on no longer existed.
The Bank of England will publish its latest interest rates later.
They are expected to rise from 4.5% to 4.75%, although some suggest they could go as high as 5%.
This could mean homeowners face paying hundreds of pounds a month more on their next deal.
Mr Powell said: “You would spend more time choosing a holiday than trying to choose whether this mortgage deal is best for you.
“You’re asking customers to make massive decisions, maybe their husband or wife is at work and they want to talk about it. By the time they get back to us, the mortgage deal may be gone.”
He said the past week had been the toughest since the job began 14 years ago, with lenders partly to blame.
He said lenders historically gave two or three days’ notice before pulling a deal, but recently many have been removed within hours.
“I like to think that lenders could do better. As brokers we are now trying to start a petition to say we need a minimum of 48 hours notice (before trades are withdrawn).”
Almost a quarter of fixed-term mortgages in Wales are set to expire this year, figures shared with Wales Live show.
Around 36,000 of these – 12% of all 291,000 fixed-term mortgages in Wales – are due to expire in the second half of this year.
Nikolai Ryder is facing going into debt or selling his home due to rising interest rates
One of them is Nicholas Ryder, 45, from Denbigh, who said if interest rates continue to rise, his family will be faced with selling their home or going into debt to make ends meet.
He and his wife bought their three-bedroom house in 2021 after finding out they were expecting their second child.
In order to find a home within their budget, they chose to buy a property that was in need of major renovations, but the rising cost of living meant the heating was off for most of the winter.
Their current fixed rate mortgage deal runs until December.
Mr Ryder said he expected their mortgage repayments to rise by between £300 and £500 a month depending on whether they locked in a rate now by paying a penalty charge.
“It feels like a gamble. It’s true. It’s one of those things that no one can give you an answer to because no one knows. It’s a constant worry,” he said.
Principality, Wales’ biggest building society, said around 26,800 of its fixed-rate mortgage deals in Wales would close this year – about a third of the roughly 75,000 fixed-rate mortgages on its books in the country.
Niall Jones wanted to move home but was struggling to sell his property
Niall Jones, 28, decided he needed to take out a new mortgage deal this week.
Mr Jones, who lives with his wife Natalie and one-year-old daughter Mia, said they had hoped to sell their Caerphilly home and move before their fixed rate ended but had not received much interest since put it on the market a few months ago.
“I think we were aware that there was going to be a pretty big increase (in our mortgage payments). I don’t think we were aware of how much,” Niall said.
“When we started getting reminders from a mortgage provider, maybe a few months ago, we could renew for just over £100 extra a month, but now we’re locked into one which is £170.
“We pay from £803 a month to £970.”