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Coventry announces rate cuts: "the first lender to react positively to the recent easing in SWAP rates"

Journalist: Riz Malik

ended 13. March 2024

Coventry Building Society has today announced rate cuts across most of their range (screengrab below)., and have given brokers the usual two days' notice. Newspage asked brokers for their thoughts, below.

14 responses from the Newspage community

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Katy Eatenton
Mortgage & Protection Specialist at Eatenton Finance
This is the email we’ve all been waiting for. It's a massive boost for borrowers. Coventry giving 48 hours notice and reducing rates, a double win. After potentially a brief recession following this morning's. GDP data, hopefully other lenders will follow and there will be some healthy competition back in the market.
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Andrew Montlake
Managing Director at Coreco
This is news that will resonate positively with borrowers as Coventry becomes the first lender to react positively to the recent easing in SWAP rates. I expect that other lenders will begin to cut their rates once more over the coming days, as application levels also begin to ease. There is a reason that Coventry have become such a highly regarded lender. They have a varied product set, good criteria and a policy towards notice periods of rate changes that show they understand the pressures on brokers and their clients.
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Stephen Perkins
Managing Director at Yellow Brick Mortgages
Rate reductions are always welcome and hopefully Coventry will draw other lenders out of the shadows. This has the potential to be a real catalyst of positive change in the mortgage and property market.
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Hannah Bashford
Director at Model Financial Solutions
As always, we can count on Coventry to do the right thing. Their ethos centres around borrowers and they are supportive of advisers, too, so it is a win win. With swaps rates slowly reducing again over the past couple of weeks it has been baffling to see lenders increasing their rates. Hopefully they will also now follow Coventry’s lead and start reducing rates again, too.
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Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
It does not surprise me that Coventry is leading the rate cuts as other lenders realise they may have been too quick to hike rates. As lenders fight for what business is out there, others will follow within the week.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
Coventry has the receipe for a great mortgage lender: mix competitive products with a dash of great criteria, a shake of good technology, and stir in 48 hours' notice of rate changes for good measure. Other lenders will follow eventually, as Swap rates have started to improve slightly and many lenders are already moaning about much reduced volumes of applications over the past few weeks.
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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
Consistent Coventry, one of the broker's favourites, are also the first big gun to declare their hand with 48 hours' notice of rate reductions. They are turning into a good industry marker. Could this be the start of better things to come? Let's hope so but it's a bit early to get too excited. Maybe just a little.
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Rohit Kohli
Director at The Mortgage Stop
It's great to see a top 10 lender have the bravery to reduce rates at a time when most other major lenders feel that an increase is the direction of travel. Here's hoping that other lenders will now stop and think about their rates and look to take a lead from Conventry.
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Darryl Dhoffer
Founder at The Mortgage Geezer
SWAP rates have been on a downward curve over the past couple of weeks, yet lenders have increased rates, quite possibly to bolster their margins. Yet again Coventry lead the march on rate cuts, with suitable notice periods, and we can now expect other lenders to follow suit. If they don't then serious questions need to be asked by the regulators. We need lenders that focus their attention on fair and transparent pricing reflective of the market, in line with their Consumer Duty responsibilities.
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Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
Great to see Coventry reducing rates across the whole product range. It shows an appetite for lending when others are tightening their belts.
Hopefully this will incentivise other lenders to reduce too. Remember the rate war from earlier in the year, brokers and borrowers are keen to see this return, and quickly too.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
The only way is down, it seems, for Coventry Building Society as it takes the very refreshing stance of reducing all of its mortgage rates with effect from Friday morning. Any applicants looking to tie up a deal with this lender should delay the rate decision by a couple of days. It seems the money-men at this Midlands-based lender were waiting for the latest UK growth figures to be released before unleashing this excellent news onto the High Street. Watch this space: we expect competitor lenders to follow as the mortgage rate war potentially recommences.
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Robert Timm
Managing Director at Sunland Mortgages
Bravo Coventry. This is great to see. I’m sure the sentiment will be shared with other brokers, but their 48-hour commitment is seen as a huge support of the broker cause, and added to the fact they’re starting to reduce rates, they’re definitely flavour of the month among the broker community.
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Luke Thompson
Director at PAB Wealth Management
Here we go. This could very well be the start of rates starting to fall again. SONIA rates have been falling recently and after the steady rate rises of last week we saw Gen H reduce rates on Tuesday and Coventry announce cuts today. This will normally trigger the biggest lenders to get off their backsides and reduce their rates as they don't want to miss out on market share. It's always a shame though that it takes smaller lenders to almost force the biggest lenders to cut their rates. The smaller lenders are leaving the bigger ones in the dust right now.
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Amit Patel
Adviser at Trinity Finance
Whilst most lenders apply a knee-jerk reaction to rising swap rates, Coventry seem to take a pragmatic approach and are happy to wait patiently and monitor market conditions. These rate reductions are most welcome at a time when other lenders have increased their rates.