HSBC has temporarily withdrawn mortgage deals for new borrowers over fears the Bank of England will raise interest rates again.
The lender published a message on Thursday afternoon, saying it will temporarily suspend "new business" residential and buy-to-let products through brokers.
HSBC had originally set a deadline of 5pm but it was forced to close applications earlier at 3.30pm after experiencing “significant demand”.
New mortgage deals will be available again from Monday, where it is expected they’ll be put back at a higher rate.
Meanwhile, Nationwide Building Society has today increased its fixed rates for new borrowing as well as reducing some rates on trackers.
Two, three and five-year fixed-rate deals for people with a 5% deposit will increase by between 0.01 and 0.20 percentage points, with rates starting from 4.69%.
An HSBC spokesperson said: "To ensure that we can stay within our operational capacity and meet our customer service commitments, we occasionally need to limit the amount of new business we can take each day.
"Our broker products will be available again on Monday, June 12."
A Nationwide spokesperson said: "In recent weeks swap rates (which underpin the pricing of fixed-rate mortgages) have continued to rise and lenders across the market have increased rates or withdrawn products.
"We are not immune to this and need to increase our fixed rates to ensure they remain sustainable."
It comes following the rapid rise in mortgage rates over the past few weeks.
The average two-year-fixed-rate mortgage rate on the market across all deposit brackets was 5.82% as of yesterday, according to Moneyfacts, up from 5.49% at the start of June.
The average five-year fixed-rate mortgage was 5.49%, up from 5.17% at the start of June.
But analysts note that rates are still down compared to after the disastrous Mini-Budget last September, when they peaked at around 6.5% on average.
At the end of last month, Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfacts, revealed how almost 800 mortgage products had been pulled in just a few days.
She explained the volatility “is down to the concerns surrounding future interest rate hikes” after the latest inflation figures came out higher than expected.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation - which measures how prices change over time - slowed in April by less than expected to 8.7%.
Some analysts are now predicting the Bank of England will have to raise interest rates to as high as 5.5% to try and bring inflation under control.
By raising interest rates, borrowing becomes more expensive, and so the Bank hopes people will spend less and inflation will drop as a result.
“Consumers looking to refinance will find rates around 5% on average for a fixed deal, compared to around 3% a year ago,” said Ms Springall.
“It is vital borrowers seek advice to assess the situation and to find a mortgage that suits their circumstances.”
The next inflation data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is due out on June 21, with the Bank of England to announce its next interest rates decision on June 22.
Why are mortgage payments rising?
If you're on a tracker mortgage, these types of deals move in line with the base rate - so when interest rates rise, your monthly payments will go up.
If you're on a standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage, then you'll likely see your rates go up as well when the base rate increases.
It is down to your lender to decide whether to pass on the increase - and unsurprisingly, most do decide to do this.
If you’re on a fixed-rate mortgage, the rate rise won’t affect your monthly bill until your current deal expires.
This means you're protected for now - but many who locked into their mortgage deal when rates were cheap will be in for a nasty shock when they come to remortgage, due to how much rates have risen.
If you're on a variable rate or your mortgage is ending in the next six months, you might want to check now if you can lock into a new deal.
Many lenders let you secure a new deal three to six months in advance.
If rates do come down, then you might be able to cancel the deal you've agreed to - but check with your lender before signing up first.
