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Even though many lenders have raised their rates over the last two weeks, the most competitive mortgages are still available at 3.51%.

HSBC and Barclays are the latest big lenders to increase the cost of their fixed-rate mortgages by around 0.1%, and Nationwide has also raised some of its fixed rates by around 0.19%. NatWest has also announced it is raising rates by up to 0.14%. Despite recent marginal price rises, a selection of banks and building societies still offer fixed rates from 3.51%. 

Santander for Intermediaries offers a range of low-cost mortgages from 3.51%, although its rates are likely to rise in the coming days. The bank's two-year fix is available to borrowers moving home with a 40% deposit for loans up to £2 million, with a £1,999 arrangement fee. Santander's new three-year fix is priced at around 3.7%, and its five-year fix at around 3.75%. 

Aaron Strutt, product director at Trinity Financial, says: "The major banks and building societies had such a busy start to the year that the sheer volume of rate cuts and criteria changes was always going to slow down. Many lenders are still offering two-year fixes from 3.51% through Santander and five-year fixes from 3.73% through NatWest. The money markets seem to be pricing in a further Bank of England base rate cut in April, so I suspect even though rates are going up a bit now, they will come back down again."

Lending solutions with Trinity Financial

Are you looking to buy a property and require expert advice? We’re here to help you find a solution – no matter how complex your circumstances. Our expert brokers have extensive experience providing creative solutions to secure mortgages for our clients.

Call Trinity Financial on 0808 1642174 to secure a fixed or tracker rate mortgage, book a consultation or use our appointment calendar

The information contained within was correct at the time of publication but is subject to change.

Your mortgage is secured on your property. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage

NatWest offering higher mortgage income multiples

NatWest is making changes to its residential Loan-to-Income (LTI) calculations, enabling many homebuyers and remortgaging customers to access larger mortgage loan sizes. The bank consistently offers many of the cheapest fixed- and tracker-rate mortgages available in the market.

Anyone applying for a NatWest mortgage earning over £75,000 or £100,000 jointly will now be able to access up to 6.0x income, up from 5.5x, provided they have a deposit of at least 25% and they have a good credit score. For single or joint applicants earning over £40,000, the income multiple is also being raised to 5.5x times salary from 5.0x again when they have a deposit of at least 25%. These changes only apply to capital and interest mortgages, although higher-income multiple interest-only mortgages are available to borrowers with a clear interest-only repayment strategy.

What this income multiple change could mean to NatWest customers: A customer earning £75,000 a year could now potentially borrow up to £37,500 more under the updated mortgage income multiple calculations than they could before this change.

Aaron Strutt, product director at Trinity Financial, says: "Nationwide recently made their 6 times multiple more widely available, so it is now an option for other borrowers, not just first-time buyers locking into five or ten-year fixes. When more of the larger lenders start offering higher income multiples, it puts pressure on the remaining lenders that don't offer such large income stretches.

"There is no point in going to a lender offering a super cheap rate if it will not offer a sufficiently large mortgage to get the property you want to buy. All of these changes to income multiples are a game-changer for the mortgage market and those keen to get on the property ladder.  Many of the smaller building societies and specialist lenders have been offering up to six times salary for years, but the acceptance criteria was not widely known about."

What mortgage income multiples do the other mortgage lenders use?

• Halifax up to 5.5 times salary
• Santander up to 5.5 times salary
• Barclays up to 6 times salary
• Nationwide up to 6 times salary
• HSBC up to 6.5 times salary
• TSB up to 5.5 times salary
• Bank of Ireland up to 6 times salary
• Teachers up to 7 times salary

Lending solutions with Trinity Financial

Are you looking to buy a property and require expert advice? We’re here to help you find a solution – no matter how complex your circumstances. Our expert brokers have extensive experience providing creative solutions to secure mortgages for our clients.

Call Trinity Financial on 0808 1642174 to secure a fixed or tracker rate mortgage or book a consultation or use our appointment calendar

The information contained within was correct at the time of publication but is subject to change.

Your mortgage is secured on your property. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage

Santander UK has launched its lowest deposit mortgage for new customers, probably since the financial crash. The ‘My First Mortgage’ scheme enables borrowers with a 2% deposit or a minimum deposit of £10,000 to buy a property when they take its five-year fixed rate.  

‘My First Mortgage’ is available exclusively to first-time buyers, via a Santander mortgage adviser or mortgage brokers like Trinity Financial, and marks Santander’s latest step towards helping more would-be buyers onto the property ladder. Data from the lender shows that more than half (52%) of UK adults said they found saving money for a deposit to be the biggest barrier to buying a property.  

Key acceptance rules for new 'My First Mortgage'

• First-time buyer only, including joint mortgages.
• Maximum 98% loan-to-value (2% deposit).
• Minimum deposit £10,000.
• Maximum loan £500,000.
• Maximum term 40 years.
• Has to be taken on capital repayment not interest only.
• 5-year fixed rate. Early repayment charges apply.
• Gifted deposits accepted.
• No flats, new build or properties in Northern Ireland.

The new product requires a minimum £10,000 deposit, with maximum lending up to £500,000 repayable over a term of between five and 40 years. Lending above 95 and up to 98% is available on existing houses only, with data from the lender showing that two thirds of first-time buyers purchased a house in 2025. All lending remains subject to Santander’s broader affordability checks, including a maximum loan-to-income multiple of 4.45x salary. Customers looking to purchase a new build property or flat are able to continue to access borrowing up to a maximum 95% loan-to-value so you need 5% deposit.   

Aaron Strutt, product director at Trinity Financial, says: "It is great to see one of the bigger banks coming out with a low deposit scheme targeting first-time buyers with smaller deposits. There is a reasonable amount of choice in this part of the mortgage market now, which means you do not need a huge deposit to buy a property anymore.  

"Many of the lower deposit mortgages are available through smaller lenders and building societies and if you want one of these low deposit deals applicants normally have to lock into a fixed rate for five years. There are still lots of potential borrowers with good credit scores who are renting that want to get onto the property ladder and they are really struggling to save up a sufficiently large deposit, especially when they don't have access to the bank of Mum and Dad."

Will borrowers get stuck with this 98% mortgage?

When you come to the end of the five-year fixed deal some borrowers may well struggle to remortgage away to another lender, but Santander will probably offer them a new fixed rate rather than forcing them to revert to their expensive standard variable rate. Five years is quite a long time and if first time buyers are purchasing a house and they can pay a bit of the mortgage off they may well be able to switch lenders. House prices could also rise which may well help them get a cheaper remortgage rate.

If you do take a low deposit mortgage then it often makes sense to make overpayments and use the standard 10% overpayment facilities if possible to try and reduce the loan to value so it's closer to 90% or 95%. This is where lots of lenders have more competitively priced rates.

Most big lenders not offering new customers less than 5% deposit mortgages

Many of the big banks and building societies are offering income stretch mortgages or guarantor products but they have shied away from deals where borrowers need less than a 5% deposit. Santander’s new ‘my first home’ mortgage will mean it is offering similar schemes to the ones through Skipton, Yorkshire Building Society and April Mortgages. 

Lending solutions with Trinity Financial

Are you looking to buy a property and require expert advice? We’re here to help you find a solution – no matter how complex your circumstances. Our expert brokers have extensive experience providing creative solutions to secure mortgages for our clients.

Call Trinity Financial on 0808 1642174 to secure a fixed or tracker rate mortgage or book a consultation or our appointment calendar

The information contained within was correct at the time of publication but is subject to change.

Your mortgage is secured on your property. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee has kept the base rate on hold at 3.75% for February. 

Focus was on the vote split and the updated economic forecasts, with markets pricing in a further base rate cut in April, as the UK economic backdrop remains fragile, with weak jobs, slow growth, and rising political risk.

The decision by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee was widely expected by economists. It voted to hold rates with a knife-edge 5-4 majority. Governor Andrew Bailey says his main message is "good news", with inflation due to fall to the Bank's 2% target sooner than expected.

In Arbuthnot Latham's latest market update, the private bank states that “The market is very much in risk-on mode, driven by global growth optimism, with stocks and gold hitting record highs.

“The US central bank kept rates on hold as expected, despite pressure from Donald Trump, who is likely to announce his nomination for a new Fed chair imminently.”

The European Central Bank also meets soon with no change expected as EU growth momentum picks up, helped by the Indian trade deal, with the euro benefiting from the growing ‘sell-US’ theme.

Property transactions were up in December

Property transactions are up 5% on a year ago, government data has revealed.

The number of UK residential transactions in December 2025 was 100,440, 5% higher than December 2024 and marginally lower (less than 1%) than November 2025.

The number of UK non-residential transactions in December 2025 was 10,640, 7% higher than December 2024 and 10% lower than November 2025.

Residential mortgage approvals totalled 61,013 in December, down 4.8% from November and 8.4% below the 66,634 seen in December 2024, according to the latest figures from the Bank of England.

What is happening in the mortgage market? 

Aaron Strutt, product director at Trinity Financial, says: "There is little doubt that changes to mortgage affordability rules, along with cheaper fixed rates, are starting to make a difference by helping more people to get on the property ladder. 

"It is a buyer's market at the moment, and confidence is starting to return, even though global economic uncertainty remains. Lots of potential buyers have been holding off buying and waiting for property prices to come down, and they have dropped in certain areas, especially when homes have been on the market for a long time."

Lending solutions with Trinity Financial

Are you looking to buy a property and require expert advice? We’re here to help you find a solution – no matter how complex your circumstances. Our expert brokers have extensive experience providing creative solutions to secure mortgages for our clients.

Call Trinity Financial on 0808 1642174 to secure a fixed or tracker rate mortgage, book a consultation or use our appointment calendar

The information contained within was correct at the time of publication but is subject to change.

Your mortgage is secured on your property. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage

• Trinity Financial's Aaron Strutt was quoted in The Times page two story on Saturday, 31st January 2026. The article highlights the rise in the number of mortgage lenders offering up to six times salary mortgages.

• NatWest became the latest big bank to increase how much it would lend borrowers, with single applicants earning more than £75,000 and joint applicants on more than £100,000 able to borrow at more than six times their salary, at up to 75 per cent loan-to-value, up from 5.5 times before.

  Aaron Strutt from Trinity Financial, told The Times: “When the larger lenders start offering higher income multiples, it puts pressure on the remaining lenders which are not offering such large income stretches to do the same. There is no point in going to a lender offering a super cheap rate if it will not offer a sufficiently large mortgage to get the property you want to buy.

  “All of these income multiple changes really are a game-changer for the mortgage market and those keen to get on the property ladder.”

Almost four in 10 landlords plan to refinance their buy-to-let properties during the next 12 months, Paragon Bank research shows.

The research, which covers Q4 2025, found that 39% intend to refinance throughout 2026, a figure that increases in line with portfolio size. Over half (53%) of those with four or more buy-to-let mortgages anticipate either remortgaging or switching to a new product with their existing lender, falling to 27% of those with between one and three properties.

The data shows that refinancing has steadily increased over time, with the same quarter in 2020 seeing an average of 27% of landlords planning to either remortgage with another lender or secure a product switch with their existing.

Industry data from UK Finance shows that £49.7 billion worth of fixed-rate buy-to-let mortgages are set to mature in the 12 months to November, predominantly fuelled by the high number of five-year fixed-rate mortgages taken out during a bumper year for the buy-to-let market in 2021.

The survey of over 800 landlords, undertaken by Pegasus Insight on behalf of Paragon Bank, also revealed that landlords plan to refinance an average of 2.2 properties each. More than four in 10 (46%) will refinance just one home, three in 10 (31%) two homes and, at the other end of the scale, 6% will look to secure new loans for five or more properties.

The rise of the limited company buy-to-let

The majority of properties, almost eight in 10 (78%), will be refinanced in a personal name, with two in 10 (19%) in a limited company. The research also found that more than six in 10 landlords who financed their investments with buy-to-let borrowing had a fixed rate deal mature during the last two years.

Louisa Sedgwick, Managing Director of Mortgages at Paragon Bank, said: “The research highlights how 2026 will be another big year for maturing mortgages, with remortgaging and product switches driving buy-to-let business. This is driven by the buoyant market from 2021, when the Stamp Duty holiday led to the strongest market for buy-to-let house purchase on record. Much of that business was written on five-year fixed-rate mortgages."

Landlords withdrawing equity from their buy-to-let portfolios

Paragon's research also highlighted how landlords are often withdrawing equity to expand their portfolios or invest in those they already own. With rates coming down and demand remaining robust, purchases look more attractive. Additionally, some landlords may draw down funds to enhance the properties across their portfolios to ensure they’re compliant with the forthcoming Renters’ Rights Act and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards regulations.

What has been happening to buy-to-let mortgage rates recently? 

Mortgage lenders have been lowering their buy-to-let rates, so in some cases, they are cheaper than residential fixed rates. Some buy-to-let lenders offer rates close to 2% with really high setup fees, rates around 3.5% with more manageable setup fees, and 4% fixes with flat £1,499 or £1,999 arrangement fees. 

Which lenders offer buy-to-let portfolio remortgages? 

 Source: Trinity Financial

TSB launches into the limited company buy-to-let market

TSB has launched Portfolio Buy to Let for Landlords with four or more mortgaged buy-to-let properties, up to a maximum of 10. Customers can have a maximum of 10 mortgaged buy-to-let properties with a maximum of five with TSB up to £2m in total.

Lending solutions with Trinity Financial

Are you looking to buy a property and require expert advice? We’re here to help you find a solution – no matter how complex your circumstances. Our expert brokers have extensive experience providing creative solutions to secure mortgages for our clients.

Call Trinity Financial on 0808 1642174 to secure a buy-to-let fixed or tracker rate remortgage or book a consultation or use our appointment calendar

The information contained within was correct at the time of publication but is subject to change.

Your mortgage is secured on your property. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage