Spotlight: Leeds BS five-year fixed rate mortgage

The deal

Leeds Building Society has launched a new five-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 4.59 per cent.

The good points

There is no higher lending charge and you can pay off up to 10 per cent of the amount owed each year with no penalty.

The bad points

The rate includes a 0.24 per cent discount for taking the Society's Homecover insurance until 30 June 2015 – if you don't the rate climbs to 4.84 per cent. You'll also need a 40 per cent deposit. On top of the £199 booking fee, there's a £1,300 completion fee which climbs to 1 per cent of the loan if you are borrowing more than £500,000.

Conclusion

This is typical of headline grabbing rates at the moment, which are much less attractive when you look at the detail. This deal may get the Leeds into the best buy tables, but few will take it up. Limiting the loan to those needing only 60 per cent of the value of the property will exclude most but worse is forcing people to take out home insurance to get the headline 4.59 per cent rate.