Santander has made cuts on a selected range of residential and buy-to-let (BTL) deals, by as much as 0.21% on some rates.
The changes come into effect from Thursday 28th March.
Selected residential fixed rates for new business were reduced by between 0.02% and 0.21%.
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Selected BTL fixed rates for new business were reduced by between 0.02% and 0.12%.
Brokers looking to secure any of the current rates should submit applications by 10pm tonight (Wednesday 27th March).
Newpage asked brokers for their views on these cuts, if they go far enough, and if there are more cuts due from major lenders before Easter.
Reaction:
Charles Breen, founder at Montgomery Financial:
“Santander seizes the spotlight by slashing rates. Is this the beginning of a stampede of rate cuts we are about to see?
“Have lenders finally grown a backbone and started doing what we were all crying out for?
“While the cuts are small, they’re better than nothing. When are we going to see more lenders joining the mortgage joust?
“Or is it only Santander and Barclays who are going to get all the glory?”
Ying Tan, CEO at Habito:
“It is great to see the direction of travel. Well done Santander for following a number of other lenders cutting rates.
“However, in the interest of consumers, we need more and larger cuts to really get the market moving during the important spring period.”
Elliott Culley, director at Switch Mortgage Finance:
“Santander are the latest lender to join the party with a handful of rate reductions.
“They have also spread the love to landlords by reducing the rates for their buy-to-let range as well.
“Expect more lenders to join in as they start to get FOMO.”
Stephen Perkins, managing director at Yellow Brick Mortgages:
“Some good news from Santander ahead of the Easter Bank Holiday, with the lender reducing their rates for new business on residential and buy-to-let products.
“These again look like business level management reductions rather than hopping out in front of the competition.”
Lewis Shaw, owner and mortgage expert at Shaw Financial Services:
“It’s a relief to see that lenders are finally beginning to cut rates.
“While they aren’t falling by huge margins, it’s at least going in the right direction.
“Fingers crossed, this stimulates a bit of competition, and we see the big six jostling for position in the coming weeks.”
Gary Bush, financial adviser at MortgageShop.com:
“Santander has the feel-good factor over market conditions it seems as they drop some fixed rates by up to 0.21% taking effect from this Thursday.
“As this week develops the mortgage rate war is raging hotter and hotter as lenders fight to maintain their market share of applications.”
Hannah Bashford, director at Model Financial Solutions:
“Another hectic day of rate tweaking, but thank you Santander for simply reducing some of your rates and not increasing some.
“Constant rate hokey cokey by a few base points is tiresome and confusing.
“Lets hope this is the start of a positive change to rates and after the Easter bank holiday we see some serious [competition] hotting up!”
Rohit Kohli, director at The Mortgage Stop:
“It’s been a busy day today with many lenders making tweaks to their products.
“We still haven’t seen lenders reduce by as much as the movement in swaps and gilts.
“Perhaps they don’t want a slew of applications just before the Easter break when many will have reduced staff?”
Mark Robinson, managing director at Albion Forest Mortgages:
“In a refreshing plot twist to the turbulent story that has been 2024, we have seen a torrent of rate reductions this week.
“Hopefully this shows improved confidence in the market, and we start seeing lower rates for the remainder of the year.”
Ben Perks, managing director at Orchard Financial Advisers:
“As another lender enters the fray, I’m starting to feel optimistic about the weeks ahead.
“Swap rates have been reducing and some lenders are starting to pass those savings on to the borrower.
“If this keeps up, we’ll be back on track and the pressure on the Bank of England to drop the base rate will start to become unbearable.”
