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Halifax increases rates

Journalist: John Choong (Head of Markets and Research), Newspage

ended 17. October 2024

Following Barclays' earlier today, Halifax has followed suit with its own set of rate hikes. Starting tomorrow, the UK's biggest lender will be instigating rate increases on 2- and 5-year fixed rate products between 0.11% and 0.24%. Newspage asked brokers for their views, below.

10 responses from the Newspage community

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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
Another puzzling move upwards from Halifax this time, when swap rates have actually come down. This bucks the trend, so hopefully this is a temporary adjustment or service-related rather than a sign of further rate rises to come.
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Harps Garcha
Director at Brooklyns Financial
Recent weeks have underscored that the turbulent ride in the mortgage market is far from over. Ongoing global unpredictability suggests this volatility will persist in the foreseeable future. Mortgage borrowers are urged to seek expert advice to navigate these uncertain times and make informed decisions.
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Stephen Perkins
Managing Director at Yellow Brick Mortgages
Halifax, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender, has followed Barclays in going against the markets given the recent inflation print and certainty of a base rate cut in November. Expect U-turns over the coming weeks, unless they are anticipating greater than predicted economic fallout from the Autumn budget.
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Hannah Bashford
Director at Model Financial Solutions
Along with the suspected changes to CGT and the autumn Budget hanging over everyone's head, this is a blow to borrowers and creates more doom and gloom in the mortgage market. With the positive news on inflation yesterday, and a likely base rate cut in November and the reduction in swaps yesterday, these moves are a little surprising. But this seems to be how things work now, and the rollercoaster doesn't stop.
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Craig Fish
Director at Lodestone
Nothing to see here. Just a temporary blip on the rate landscape following the recent increase in swap rates. Normal service has now resumed, swap rates are on the decline again, and lender rates will likely follow in the coming days and weeks, assuming there are no bloopers in the budget.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
It was inevitable that more high street lenders would follow the example of NatWest and Barclays, with rate increases across selected Halifax products just announced. This flies in the face of all the good news surrounding the huge improvement to Inflation and initial improvements to swap rates yesterday. However, this also demonstrates that pricing isn't just about inflation, but the growing weight of anticipation of the Labour Budget from which no one can hide at the moment.
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Rohit Kohli
Director at The Mortgage Stop
It looks like some the UK's biggest high street lenders are looking to protect their profit margins. This comes ahead of the growing expectations of a base rate cut next month following yesterday's inflation figures, which came in below the Bank of England's 2% target. With Barclays raising across the board and Halifax targeting those coming off their fixed rates, while other lenders with less deep pockets holding firm, it’s a surprise move which other lenders may soon follow.
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Jack Tutton
Director at SJ Mortgages
The rollercoaster of the mortgage market just keeps going. When we thought we had seen the back of interest rate increases for the near future at least, Halifax have followed Barclays and NatWest in recent days increase some of their products. These increases aren't a huge surprise given the increase in borrowing rates in the last month, however it will feel like a kick in the teeth to mortgage holders especially after such positive inflation news yesterday.
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Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
Rates are rising, but optimism within the industry this week is higher than ever. With the inflation now at 1.7% the pressure on the Bank of England is becoming insurmountable. Whilst seeing increasing rates isn’t great, I’m optimistic that this is a short-term blip, and just lenders applying caution ahead of the Autumn budget.
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Ken James
Director at Contractor Mortgage Services
This Halifax announcement could just be a storm in a teacup, having had Natwest then Barclays give rate increases it is unsurprising that another major lender is following closely behind, but with the drop in inflation and the positive noises surrounding a Bank of England base rate cut coupled with Swap rates reversing, it seems that these rates may just be a momentary pause and service will resume as normal imminently. This is all subject, of course, to Labour not spoiling the recovery party with their Budget.