Mortgage lending giants announce rate cuts on products

Some major mortgage lenders have announced rate cuts to the products they are offering, including for those with smaller deposits such as first-time buyers.

Nationwide Building Society said that from January 13, it will reduce selected two, three, five and 10-year fixed rates and two-year tracker rates.

House purchase and re-mortgage deals are included in the rate reductions, with some cuts being made for borrowers looking for deals with deposits as low as 10%.

Among the reductions, a two-year fixed rate for borrowers with a 25% deposit will fall by 0.40 percentage points to 1.59% with a fee of £999.

And a two-year fixed rate for borrowers with a 10% deposit will be reduced by 0.25 percentage points to 3.24% with a £999 fee and to 3.49% with no fee.

Henry Jordan, Nationwide’s director of mortgages, said: “For those looking at their current property, we’ve also made a number of rate reductions on our green additional borrowing and later life deals.”

HSBC UK has also announced mortgage rate cuts, as it reintroduced 10% deposit deals to its range.

The bank has reduced rates on 17 mortgages “with immediate effect”, with savings of up to 0.20 percentage points.

HSBC’s new 10% deposit deals include a two-year fixed rate deal with a £999 fee at 3.69% (or 3.99% with no fee) and a five-year fixed rate with a £999 fee at 3.84%, plus a two year tracker rate of 3.79% (with £999 fee).

Michelle Andrews, HSBC UK’s head of buying a home, said: “Home ownership dreams may have seemed even further away for many first-time buyers of late, but with more providers returning to 90% LTV (loan-to-value) mortgages, they may be closer to becoming a reality, which is great news.

“Lower rates across other LTVs is also great news, and could well provide those looking to re-mortgage, switch rates or those on an SVR (standard variable rate) with some important savings on their current monthly outlay.”

Many low deposit mortgages vanished from the market in 2020, around the start of the initial coronavirus lockdown period, amid concerns about the future direction of house prices and the wider economic uncertainty.

But more recently, some lenders have started expanding their mortgage ranges to include more low deposit lending.

A survey from Aviva published on Tuesday found that a fifth (20%) of people said their home moving plans were scuppered in 2020, with worries about job security and job losses being among common reasons for this.

Seven in 10 (69%) aspiring first-time buyers said they needed to rethink their property-buying plans during 2020, Aviva found.

The vast majority (94%) of people who paused their home buying plans still intend to purchase a property in future, according to its survey.