 After 14 months of interest rate misery, homeowners were granted some relief by some of Britain's biggest lenders cutting their mortgage rates. Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group, the UK's biggest mortgage lender, will slash rates by up to 0.71 percentage points for five-year fixed-rate mortgages. They'll now be offered at 5.28% from Friday, the bank said today. Two-year fixed-rate loans won't be left behind, though, with a fall by as much as 0.27 percentage points from tomorrow, landing at 6.18%. Rates have been slashed across the board, including for first-time buyers, new build, shared equity and large loan mortgages Halifax taking the knife to its mortgage rates follows rivals HSBC, TSB, Nationwide and more as banks bid to put the slowing housing market back into high gear. Natwest will join in too, cutting selected two and five-year fixed rates by up to 0.65 percentage points for new customers from tomorrow. In a welcome change from the months of doom and/or gloom, Nationwide decreased rates on its fixed mortgages by up to 0.55 percentage points yesterday. Nationwide says that house prices have been plummeting for months (Picture: Shutterstock / D K Grove) Hard on the heels of the building society that same day was HSBC, with rate cuts ranging between 0.05 percentage points and 0.35 percentage points. First Direct moved to cut its two, five and 10-year fixed rate deals by up to 0.2 percentage points. TSB also reduced selected five-year fixed homeowner mortgages by up to 0.4 percentage points, bringing them to 5.44%. According to financial data provider Moneyfacts, the average two-year fixed residential mortgage rate is 6.83% today. House prices have been falling at their fastest rate in 14 years, plummeting 3.8% on average annually in July, marking the slowest rate since July 2009. The average price tag on a house is now £260,828, about 4.5){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
After 14 months of interest rate misery, homeowners were granted some relief by some of Britain’s biggest lenders cutting their mortgage rates.
Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender, will slash rates by up to 0.71 percentage points for five-year fixed-rate mortgages.
They’ll now be offered at 5.28% from Friday, the bank said today.
Two-year fixed-rate loans won’t be left behind, though, with a fall by as much as 0.27 percentage points from tomorrow, landing at 6.18%.