Another lender pulls down one of its rates to sub-5%
Halifax, the UK’s largest mortgage lender, has announced on Wednesday afternoon further rate cuts to its fixed rate products, slashing up to 50 basis points (bps) off selected rates.
Halifax’s no-fee two- and five-year fixes at 60% to 95% loan-to-value now start at 5.26%, while two- and five-year fixes rates with a £999 fee start at 5.64% and 5.15%, respectively. The high street lender’s rate changes take effect from Friday, September 15.
The Mortgage Works (TMW), the buy-to-let mortgage lender of Nationwide Building Society, will also be reducing rates up to 50bps across a selected range of its new business products, effective from tomorrow.
TMW’s five-year buy-to-let fixed rate with a 3% fee will be priced at 4.99 – the first sub-5% deal brokers say they have seen for months, according to news agency Newspage.
“This is more great news from the UK’s largest mortgage lender and a division of the UK's largest building society”, commented Gary Bush, financial adviser at MortgageShop.com. “The mortgage rate war is well and truly underway, and it’s looking likely that there will be a busy end to 2023.”
See all the latest UK mortgage rate data at the link.
Earlier today, Coventry Building Society also announced further rate reductions on its residential and buy-to-let fixes. Others such as BTL loan provider The Mortgage Lender also made smaller rate cuts of up to 10bps on Wednesday.
“In a week of poor economic data, it comes as no surprise the outlook is shifting, and lenders are having to reprice to try and gain as much market share as possible as demand continues to wane,” remarked Jamie Lennox, director at Dimora Mortgages. “The concern is that these reductions are too little too late to save the housing market.”
But for Justin Moy, managing director at EHF Mortgages, “these are significant cuts” made by both Halfiax and TMW this afternoon.
“The extent of the change suggests that we should be seeing good inflationary figures this month, too,” he said. “Halifax is bringing its products more in line with the rest of the high street lenders, whereas the sub-5% five-year fixed buy-to-let deal from The Mortgage Works is undoubtedly the headline grabber.
“The market is definitely improving, and let’s hope for more positive economic data in the days and weeks ahead.”
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