Brexit uncertainty has made it cheaper than ever to fix your mortgage

There's been a noticeable rise in the number of longer term fixed rate mortgages available this year. Over the past month, the likelihood of there being no deal on Britain's withdrawal from the European Union has risen, prompting markets to price in a negative reaction in the UK economy.  While six months ago, the Bank of England was indicating that it would raise the base rate, the prospect of no deal has piled pressure on confidence and increased the chances of a rate cut over the medium term.  This would likely be necessary if UK economic growth slows or shrinks as a result of no deal.   It means there's an unusual situation now occurring - markets think that it's likely that rates in the medium to long-term will be lower than in the short-term.  This is having a knock-on effect on what it costs banks to borrow on the money markets through what's known as swap rates, which in turn affects how much they charge customers on new mortgages.  In essence, swaps allow lenders to borrow money for a fixed period for a fixed cost.  At the moment, 10-year and 5-year swap rates are actually cheaper than 2-year swaps - meaning lenders can technically offer cheaper long-term fixed mortgage rates than short-term ones.  This is highly unusual and normally indicates that the economy is about to take a turn for the worse. At the moment lenders are not yet charging less for long-term fixes than short-term ones, because they're taking advantage of the situation to make a bit more money on very squeezed profit margins.