Santander appeared to draw the line on the ongoing mortgage price battle last week, but many lenders have continued to chop down rates this week.
Last week, the lender removed all its residential first-time buyer exclusives with some prices surging by 0.20%, and one industry expert, Ken James of CMS Ltd claimed that “the rate war may be broken, or at least temporarily out of order.”
But this week’s price changes suggest the competition is back up and running.
Here are the latest movements in the YourMoney.com round-up of the ‘mortgage wars’.
Halifax dropped prices for remortgage customers by up to 0.53% on fixed rates for two, three, and five-year terms, with a £999 product fee.
A two-year fix up to 75% loan to value (LTV) plummeted by 0.45% to stand at 4.36% and a maximum of 80% LTV also fell by a similar amount (0.46%) to 5.23%.
In the 60% LTV market, you can get a three-year fix with Halifax for 4.39% and a five-year deal for 4.19%. The high street lender slashed its 75% LTV deal across five years to 4.34%.
According to Rightmove’s data, the average five-year fixed mortgage rate is 4.66%, down from 4.81% last year, while a two-year equivalent is 4.99% – a drop from 5.12% a year ago.
Barclays offers a mixed bag of cuts and hikes
Barclays made reductions too, cutting prices for its five-year fixed existing mortgages for purchase. A five-year fixed-term deal (with £999 fee) at 60% LTV stands at 4.39% – a drop of 0.30%.
The 75% and 85% LTV equivalent rate also dropped by the same amount, to 4.23% and 4.62% respectively.
Cuts didn’t stop there, a fee-free five-year fix to finance 55% of your property was whittled down to 4.40% (previously 4.70%), plus further cuts hit its green mortgage, premier deal, and mortgage guarantee.
Among the raft of reductions, there were a couple of hikes too. Some deals for existing borrowers rose by 0.3%, including a 60% LTV two-year fix which rose by 0.30% to 4.39%. The lender also propped up prices on its customer reward range and select premier products.
Skipton relaunches products for buy-to-let borrowers
Meanwhile, Skipton Building Society opted against upping its rates, as 40 mortgage products were slashed. Reductions included a five-year-fix, buy-to-let product at 75% LTV which is available at 4.49% with a £2,995 fee.
The mutual also added more deals for borrowers to consider, with a two-year fix at 90% LTV for existing residential customers at 5.29% added to the market. That rate is for a fee-free deal, whereas a £495 option is slightly lower at 5.19%.
Further additions included deals for existing buy-to-let borrowers. Both two and five-year fixes to finance 60% of your property come with a £995 fee and are priced at 4.79% and 4.31% respectively.
Rates in the mortgage wars ‘continue to trickle down’
Matt Smith, Rightmove’s mortgage expert said: “We’ve had the busiest month for people getting a mortgage in principle since we launched the service in 2022, which shows that many future movers want to understand what they are likely to be able to borrow from a lender if taking out a mortgage soon.
“Average mortgage rates continue to trickle down on the whole, however, we’re now seeing those with smaller deposits benefit the most, whereas those who need to borrow less have seen some small increases in rates due to swap rate trends.”
