Michael Dowling: Mortgage borrowers should fix at truly long rates to beat ECB hikes

Most of us cannot hedge against rises in groceries, utilities, or fuel — but there is an opportunity to cushion ourselves against rising interest rates

There are 722,000 family home and 88,000 buy-to let mortgage holders facing a significant problem as interest rates are set to increase sometime this year. There are likely further rises coming in 2023.

The ECB sets the benchmark for interest rates and the ECB Base Rate, at zero, has not changed since March 2016. Interest rates are expected to rise by 0.25%, and incrementally, the increases are likely to amount to 1.5% over the next two years.