HSBC is set to introduce reductions on Friday, along with TSB – and it comes after Santander cut rates today
Several high street banks have cut their mortgage rates after weeks of rising costs due to the Iran war.
HSBC is set to introduce reductions on Friday across its residential and buy-to-let mortgage range. The new rates will be made public when they go live tomorrow.
TSB rates are also decreasing on Friday, with its two-year fixed house purchase mortgages going down by up to 0.45 percentage points. But some other TSB mortgage rates are increasing, including on product transfer deals and additional borrowing.
Halifax has also announced it will be lowering fixed rates on home mover and first-time buyer mortgages by as much as 0.35% on Friday.
Santander cut some mortgage products by up to 0.28 percentage points on Thursday, becoming the first major lender to do so since the start of the Middle East conflict.
The bank said it is passing on a reduction in borrowing costs after a fall in swap rates, which are used by lenders to price loans.
The latest data from comparison website Moneyfacts shows the average two-year fixed mortgage rate on Thursday morning was 5.88%, down from 5.89% on Wednesday. The average five-year fix was 5.77%, unchanged from Wednesday.
At the start of March, the average two-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.83% and the average five-year fixed-rate deal was 4.95%.
Mortgage rates have risen over fears that the Iran war could send inflation soaring again, with markets now expecting the Bank of England to keep interest rates high for longer.
Moneyfacts said it had counted 6,665 homeowner mortgage products available on Thursday – and now believes rates appear to have reached a plateau.
Adam French, head of consumer finance at Moneyfacts, said average mortgage rates have held steady since Easter, adding: “Rising mortgage rates seem to have plateaued for now.
“Product numbers have also been steadily improving; 809 deals have returned to the market since it hit a low of 5,856 available products on 24 March.
“However, this is still 973 (12.7%) fewer than before the conflict in Iran began.
“Money markets are now pricing for fewer base rate hikes than they were a few weeks ago and swap rates have fallen back towards 4% from highs of around 4.4%.
“This has given several lenders, such as Santander, Atom Bank and Skipton Building Society, the headroom to make a few meaningful cuts over the last few days.
“However, mortgage pricing is driven more by expectations than current rates and borrowers are still exposed to sudden shifts. Ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East and the looming threat of ‘Trumpflation’ mean the path to cheaper borrowing remains fragile.”
