At 7:00 this morning, Kensington announced it was withdrawing its rates from tomorrow evening, in what one broker described as a “bold statement”.
Brokers were expecting the rate war to start in earnest in January but this first salvo came sooner than expected on the first working day of 2024.
According to Laura Bairstow, founder at Leeds-based The Mortgage Masters: “Withdrawing rates on the 1st working day of the new year is a pretty bold statement from Kensington. Let’s just hope that this isn’t just scratching the surface and that many other lenders follow suit with rate reductions across the board. Fingers crossed that we start to see more reduced rates on products with high loan-to-values as this could boost the market by supporting those first-time buyers who are struggling to save for a deposit.”
Justin Moy, managing director at Chelmsford-based broker, EHF Mortgages, said you cannot fault Kensingon’s sentiment: “It may be a little early for the High Street lenders to react to the SWAP rate reductions seen over Christmas, but you cannot fault the sentiment from Kensington Mortgages first thing this morning. By the end of the week, I would imagine more mainstream lenders will look to price more competitively for purchases, with remortgage deals following right behind. The sub-4% market will hopefully be peppered with opportunities for most borrowers over the coming weeks.”
Meanwhile, Craig Fish, director at London-based broker, Lodestone Mortgages & Protection, expects the big six lenders to make their move in the days ahead: “This announcement is a tentative step by one of the more specialist lenders, but I suspect that by the end of the week or start of next, the big six will have started to make their first moves, which will trigger a tsunami of reductions. The question is which lender will move first. For several weeks now lenders have been flexing their muscles to stay at the top of the rate charts, but what is really needed to get the market moving is some market-leading shorter term fixes and great remortgage rates across the board.”
Riz Malik, director at Southend-on-Sea-based R3 Mortgages, is expecting more lenders to hit the dance floor imminently: “We are expecting lenders to come out of the blocks aggressively over the next week in both the residential and buy-to-let sectors. It’s like all the lenders are at a party and we are waiting for the first one to go onto the dance floor. Once that happens, they will all join the mortgage jive.
