Low mortgage deals nearing end, Moneyfacts claims

The days of ultra low mortgage deals are coming to an end according to experts, who have reported a wave of lenders hiking their rates.

Financial information website Moneyfacts said that across the mortgage market, 125 changes took place in July, of which 36 were rate increases.

In January, just six out of the 120 changes to the mortgages on offer that took place were due to lenders increasing their rates.

Borrowers with bigger deposits looking for a deal will find that the average rate on offer has increased in recent weeks.

Moneyfacts' data shows that the average two-year fixed rate for someone with a 40% deposit has increased from 1.81% in July to 1.86% in August.

For someone looking for a five-year fix with a 40% deposit, the average rate on offer has edged up from 2.54% to 2.59%.

The trend marks the first time in a year that Moneyfacts has started to see the rates on deals for people with a 40% deposit creep up.

Last month, Bank of England governor Mark Carney suggested that the base rate could start to rise from its historic 0.5% low around the turn of the year.

Charlotte Nelson, a spokeswoman for Moneyfacts, said the website saw mortgage rate increases "jump" following Mr Carney's suggestion.

She said that swap rates, which lenders use to price their home loans, have been increasing recently.

A borrower with £150,000 left to pay on a 25-year mortgage would pay around £673 a month with a rate of 2.5%, but if this rate increased to 3%, their monthly payment could be around £711. If the rate was 5.5%, monthly payments could jump to around £921.

Lenders including Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Halifax have tweaked their rates in recent weeks, according to Moneyfacts.

Ms Nelson said the website has not yet seen particularly big rate jumps for people with smaller deposits of around 5-10%, as the hikes are currently being concentrated around larger deposit deals.

She said that people coming to the end of a fixed mortgage or looking to move off a variable rate onto a fixed deal should act "as fast as you can" to grab an attractive deal.