Santander has become the latest major mortgage lender to announce a temporary pause on some mortgage applications, amid “changing market conditions”.
The bank plans to relaunch a full range of mortgage products on Wednesday and said that from Monday evening it will not be accepting new applications via intermediary and online channels.
On Thursday last week, HSBC UK made the decision to temporarily withdraw mortgage rates available via broker services, to help to ensure the bank could stay within its operational capacity.
Its mortgages are now back on sale through brokers, although its rates have increased by between 0.10 percentage points and 0.45 percentage points.
Some brokers suggested last week that HSBC UK had been offering cheaper rates than many of its competitors.
We continually review our products in light of changing market conditions. As we prepare for a relaunch of a full range of mortgage products from Wednesday morning, we will not be accepting new applications via intermediary and online channels temporarily from this evening— Santander spokesperson
Swap rates, which underpin the price of fixed-rate mortgages, have been climbing generally following expectations over inflation and several lenders have increased their mortgage rates in recent days.
According to analysis by financial information website Moneyfacts of the deals currently on the market, average two and five-year fixed-rate mortgages were sitting at 5.86% and 5.51% respectively on Monday, having climbed from 5.49% and 5.17% on June 1.
The choice of mortgages across the market has improved compared with last week, with 4,952 residential deals available on Monday, up from 4,686 a week ago.
A Santander spokesperson said: “We continually review our products in light of changing market conditions.
“As we prepare for a relaunch of a full range of mortgage products from Wednesday morning, we will not be accepting new applications via intermediary and online channels temporarily from this evening.
“Our product transfer range remains fully available and customers who have already applied will not be impacted.”
I don't think rates are going to be falling any time soon— Ian Stuart, HSBC UK
HSBC UK chief executive Ian Stuart told Sky News he did not think rates would be falling “any time soon”.
He said: “Three hundred thousand customers will be impacted this year, so it’s significant.
“And if you took a mortgage, let me say maybe two years ago or five years ago, myself included, you know, you will come off a mortgage rate I would guess around 1.5%, something in that area, and your new mortgage is going to cost something closer to 5%.
“So this is not a subject to be flippant on. This is a very, very important topic in UK society today.
“And what we’re trying to do at HSBC is try our very best to limit that pain for customers.”
He told Sky: “There’s many customers who will be worried about their new mortgage payments.
“So please get in contact with us, we’re here to have the conversation with you, we’re here to try and help you through, but I don’t think rates are going to be falling any time soon because… this is all linked to inflation and inflation’s ended up being more sticky than we all anticipated.”
Speaking on website Newspage, Graham Cox, founder of SefEmployedMortgageHub.com, said: “Any bank or building society that comes out cheapest is getting flooded with too many applications to cope.”
Rob Gill, managing director at Altura Mortgage Finance, said: “Lenders are still working to manage volumes and recover from some very challenging market conditions over recent weeks.”
