Two of Britain’s biggest providers of home loans stoked the summer mortgage price war with further cuts to their fixed rate mortgage deals.
Market leader Halifax and the country’s biggest building society Nationwide brought more good news to a sector that has seen a slew of reductions over recent days bringing the return of sub 4% deals for the first time since February.
Halifax pushed through rate reductions of up to 0.37% on 3 year remortgage products while the Nationwide is reducing selected fixed rates by up to 0.20%. The new rates come into effect tomorrow.
Smaller lender Leeds Building Society also pushed through cuts, notably on relatively high loan to value deals. Its five year fixed rate deal for borrowers with a 15% deposit is down from 4.84% to 4.65%.
The moves follow reductions from other major lenders including NatWest and HSBC as they all fight for business.
Mortgage experts said the summer rate cutting would feed through to a bouyant property market in the autumn.
Stephen Perkins, managing director at brokers Yellow Brick Mortgages said: “Further rate cuts from two of the largest players in the mortgage market sends a clear and strong message to borrowers. Lenders are hungry for business during the remainder of 2024 and borrowers should take note. With competition between lenders heating up, now is a fantastic time for borrowers to make their property dreams a reality.”
Andrew Montlake, managing director at Coreco commented: “It’s encouraging to see major lenders such as the Halifax and Nationwide announce cuts, especially before Wednesday’s highly anticipated inflation data. After a relatively quiet first half of the year, lenders seem to be fighting for market share at present.”
Ben Perks, managing director at Orchard Financial Advisers commented: “They might be dropping with a little less gusto, but rates are still moving southward, which should provide a lot of confidence to borrowers. As people return from their summer holidays in the coming weeks, I expect the property market to really start to gather pace.”
