The raft of mortgage rate and proposition changes have continued, with the likes of NatWest, TSB, Coventry Building Society and Santander adjusting products.
NatWest has increased rates by as much as 15 basis points across selected purchase, remortgage, first-time buyer, green and buy-to-let (BTL) mortgages.
Changes have been applied to its tracker and fixed rate mortgages.
This includes the two-year tracker at 60% loan to value (LTV), up by 0.15% to 4.41% with no fee, while the option with a £995 fee has increased by the same amount to 4.19%.
At 75% LTV, the corresponding products have rates of 4.55% and 4.33% following hikes of 0.15%.
Changes will apply from 26 March.
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From today, 25 March, TSB has also increased pricing by as much as 0.2% across residential and BTL product transfer and additional borrowing rates.
This included residential two-, three- and five-year fixed rates.
Committing to its pledge to give brokers two days’ notice for any product changes, Santander will hike its new business and product transfer fixed rates by up to 0.53% on 27 March.
All new business residential and BTL fixed rates will be increased by up to 0.41%, and all residential and BTL product transfer rates by as much as 0.53%.
It will also increase some affordability rates, with all BTL rates going up by 0.5%.
Elsewhere, Principality Building Society has increased product transfer rates by as much as 0.55%, impacting residential, shared owners, BTL and holiday let deals.
The mutual has also made some rate cuts, including a reduction of 0.15% to its five-year fixed residential product at 95% LTV, and the two-year discount BTL product, which has been cut by 0.05%.
Reductions of up to 0.15% have been made to selected holiday let mortgages. Changes will apply from 26 March.
Suffolk Building Society will pull new business and retention products on 26 March to reprice and relaunch on 27 March. This will impact deals at 70%, 80% and 90% LTV, across residential, BTL, expat and holiday let.
Further, Metro Bank has repriced its residential and BTL rates, with new rates launching on 26 March.
Also sticking to a two-day notice period, Coventry Building Society will pull its offset and interest-only offset deals on 26 March and relaunch higher fixed rates on 28 March.
Average mortgage rates surge to 5.5%
Analysis from Moneyfacts showed that following the recent repricing across the market, average mortgage rates had risen to 5.5% for the first time since August 2024.
This was as of 4.30pm today and represents an increase from 4.89% on 2 March.
The firm said the typical annual cost of borrowing a £250,000 mortgage over 25 years had now gone up by more than £1,075 a year.
Adam French, head of consumer finance at Moneyfactscompare.co.uk, said the rise in average rates was an “unwelcome milestone for borrowers”.
He added: “These rising costs are in direct response to the conflict in the Middle East which has dramatically shifted market expectations around inflation and future interest rates, with lenders scrambling to keep up with rising funding costs.
“While a quicker resolution to the conflict in the Middle East could ease pressure on rates, some inflation is already baked in, the reality is that a more volatile world is a more expensive world. Even though the most competitive deals will remain below average, anyone looking to buy or remortgage this year needs to prepare for substantially higher costs than previously expected.”