NatWest, Halifax and Virgin Money slash mortgage rates
- Natwest rates will be cut by up to 30 percentage points
- It follows a series of rate cuts from rival lenders in the past week.
Three other big mortgage lenders have announced that they are cutting their rates.
NatWest, Halifax and Virgin Money will all make cuts starting August 2.
In particular, those who purchase or remortgage with NatWest will see two- and five-year mortgage rates reduced by up to 30 percentage points on certain products.
Mortgage reductions will be made for new and existing customers.
Good news: NatWest is one of the big three banks that is lowering some of its mortgage rates.
Currently, NatWest’s cheapest five-year fixed rate charges 5.84 percent. This is available to those who remortgage with at least 40 percent equity in their home.
NatWest hasn’t said exactly which mortgage rates will be lowered, but after tomorrow’s change, they are likely to drop to 5.64 percent or 5.54 percent.
Virgin Money also announced that it will reduce the costs of some of its offers offered through mortgage brokers by up to 0.41 percentage points.
Meanwhile, Halifax is cutting the rate on its five-year fixed-rate remortgage products by 0.18 percentage points.
It follows a series of rate cuts announced by rival lenders last week.
First, HSBC cut rates for new customers and those remortgaging with deposits or equity of at least 10 percent. This was quickly followed by Barclays, Nationwide and TSB.
Coventry Building Society also lowered its mortgage rates, slashing all of its two- and five-year fixed-rate new home loans. Other lenders that followed suit included Accord Mortgages, MPowered and Platform, part of Co-operative Bank.
Despite the recent flurry of lender activity, average mortgage rates have held steady over the past week, according to data from Moneyfacts.
Since the start of last week, the two-year average fixed-rate mortgage has fallen from 6.83 percent to 6.81 percent, while the five-year average fixed rate is unchanged at 6.34 percent. hundred.
Even as lenders cut rates, average fixed rates in the market have held steady.
However, there are many who believe that more lenders will lower rates in the coming weeks.
This is mainly because CPI inflation fell more than expected last month, causing market expectations around interest rates to change.
Forecasts for the Bank of England base rate peak have now fallen from 6.5 percent to below 6 percent, with some now forecasting the base rate may peak as high as 5.5 percent.
Swap rates, which banks and building societies use to price their fixed-line mortgages, have also fallen.
Nicholas Mendes, technical manager of mortgages at broker John Charcol, says: ‘In another victory for mortgage holders, NatWest is the latest high street lender to cut its fixed rates.
‘HSBC made cuts last week, swap rates have been flat and lower in recent weeks compared to the volatility of a few months ago and the current fixed rate review shows there is plenty of movement for lenders to get back to set the rate lower.
“Usually, lenders would refrain from making any rate changes before such an imminent base rate decision that markets have been feeling confident in recent weeks and hopefully it looks like they will finally catch on to lenders.” “.
While NatWest is cutting rates on its residential products, it is raising rates on its buy-to-rent offers.
Those using NatWest to buy-to-let will see a rate increase of up to 10bp on select five-year offers, while buy-to-let remortgage rates will increase up to 30bp and 25bp on select two- and five-year offers. years. .
