Lenders raise mortgage rates

by Aaron Strutt

Jan 27 2012

Abbey for Intermediaries, Nationwide Building Society, Clydesdale Bank and NatWest are just some of the big name lenders to raise their mortgage rates this week.

Nationwide increased some of their fixed rates by as much as 0.3% and Barclays raised their base rate trackers by up to 0.21%.

Aaron Strutt, a broker at Trinity Financial, says: “It is unusual for so many lenders to make changes to their mortgages rates in such a short space of time, but once one of the bigger banks makes a substantial increase in pricing, the others often follow.

“Not all of the lenders have increased rates and some first-time buyer mortgages have been made more attractive.

“NatWest's lowest 18-month tracker rate has increased from 2.69% to 2.79% but it is still cheap, even though the arrangement fee has more than doubled to £999.”

More lenders have launched long term fixes and Woolwich now has a ten-year fix at 4.99%. It is not quite a market leader, but it does give payment security and offers great value for money. You will need to have a 30% deposit to access the rate. The arrangement fee is £1,499 and the maximum loan is £1 million.

27 January 2012