Santander today became the last major mortgage lender to withdraw its deals ahead of repricing them with higher interest rates.
The high street lender said it would pull all its “new business residential and buy to let fixed and tracker rates” at 7.30pm this evening. A new range of products will be launched on Wednesday.
Santander followed in the footsteps of other big players in the sector last week including HSBC, Halifax and Nationwide.
Brokers have complained that some lenders have only given a few hours notice of withdrawals, bringing chaos and uncertainty to the market and leaving buyers without deals.
Michelle Lawson, director and mortgage specialist at advisers Lawson Financial, said: “I’m really not surprised about this announcement from Santander to be fair. I fully expected this on Friday. Kudos to Santander for giving notice. I would still prefer 24 hours’ notice as per our campaign for the #24hrpledge, as this would have been known on Friday and even before then perhaps.
“As products are not going to be launched until Wednesday, hopefully Santander will reprice for the longer term as TSB have announced today that they are actually reducing rates, which is promising.”
Katy Eatenton, mortgage specialist at Lifetime Wealth Management, said: “Santander was the only lender remaining that hadn’t repriced, so this was expected. Hopefully their systems will be able to cope with the massive influx of applications they will receive today. I know their website had problems over the weekend.”
Justin Moy, managing director at brokers EHF Mortgages, said: “Santander is probably the last lender to increase rates in the latest batch of changes, so this was not unexpected. And they have given us a reasonable amount of notice compared to some lenders, although still not 24 hours. Having seen TSB announce some rate reductions this morning, hopefully this is the start of the end of the recent stresses and strains.”
Rates have been climbing sharply since last month’s worse than expected inflation figures for April spooked the gilts market and led City investors to price in much higher interest rates over the coming months.
Today analysts Moneyfacts reported that the average two year fixed rate cost 5.86%, up from 5.83% on Friday, while the average five year deal rose from 5.48% to 5.51%.
