The Fair Investment Company has reported that  that 37 per cent of respondents in a new piece of research would opt for a long term 25 year fixed rate mortgage. For those who think 25 years is too long to be fixed into one mortgage product, a further 28 per cent preferred a medium term fixed rate deal.

This seems to be especially relevant in today's climate, which has seen building societies and banks raise their SVRs in order to fatten their ravaged margins. Discounted rates- which offer a reduction from the lenders standard variable rate- are looking like a bad choice at the current climate; the next base rate reduction is unlikely to be reflected in mant lender's standard rates.

Indeed, as  James Caldwell, director at Fair Investment.co.uk puts it on their website:

"At the moment, households are suffering from soaring repayments as they come off their fixed rate deals, and some might even lose their homes because they cannot keep up with the payments.

"A long term deal can provide people more security by reducing the risk involved with having a mortgage, which is particularly important for families with low incomes and for first time buyers, who often have no or little equity."

Caldwell goes on to say, "If the base rate keeps dropping then those who opted not to fix the interest rate on their mortgage will be better off as their mortgage repayments should go down while those on a fixed rate won't benefit. However, if the rate goes up, then those same people could find themselves faced with higher repayments while the more cautious people who opted for a fixed rate deal are protected from such fluctuations in the economy."