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Natwest Rate Increases and New High Value Proposition

Journalist: Justin Moy, Contributing Editor

ended 29. April 2024

NatWest has followed Santander this morning with similar increases across the full range of residential and buy-let fixed rate deals, up to 0.22% higher from Tuesday 30th April.

They are also extending the range of High-Value mortgage options, especially for those with £2m or more borrowing requirements.

We asked Newspage Mortgage Brokers for their thoughts on the 2nd high street lender to announce rate increases this morning, and whether the new product range has any place in the market?

 

 

7 responses from the Newspage community

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Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
NatWest are the latest lender to shuffle products and make increases. While they've displayed some innovation by expressing willingness to lend on hefty, high-value mortgages, this move is unlikely to provide much relief to the average mortgage borrower – precisely the demographic in greatest need of assistance.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
As expected, another High Street lender pushing the cost of borrowing up following the lead from Santander. With the likelihood of base rate cuts becoming less likely in 2024, longer-term Swap rates have continued to increase over the past few weeks, lenders have had little choice other than to follow. Where will this stop? Low inflation and a general election don't seem enough to make a difference.
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Dariusz Karpowicz
Director at Albion Financial Advice
It’s another hit from the market, this time from NatWest, with rate increases up to 0.22%. While they're expanding their high-value mortgage options, realistically, these changes will have minimal impact on the broader market. The perks, such as free legal fees for loans of £2m or more, aren't substantial enough to sway the majority. This approach seems tailored for a very niche segment, unlikely to influence the overall mortgage landscape significantly.
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Ken James
Director at Contractor Mortgage Services
Another hit to the stomach for the everyday person trying to buy in 2024, its seems lenders are opening the door to higher lending limits but sucker punching the lower end of the market. These rate rises are not unexpected as we are seeing lenders re adjust their figures.
All the positive vibes that we began the year with have been dampened with slow inflation reductions and the lack of any Bank of England base rate cuts.
The conservatives seem to have given up the fight for the Election as we may have expected them to have thrown a bone or two at the mortgage market to swing over votes, alas this has not been forth coming.
How will the market react we are sure to find out, and find out quickly.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
May Day looks to be nothing to dance around the maypole about as the major High Street lenders, Santander, Natwest, and Halifax all jump in this week with chunky mortgage rate increases across a variety of schemes - household budgets being under control doesn't seem likely in the short term sadly. Hang onto your hats homeowners the bumpy ride continues.
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Amit Patel
Adviser at Trinity Finance
Two of the biggest mortgage lenders announcing rate hikes is not a great start to the week. This is not good news for borrowers.
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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
Normalluy, when one of the highstreet lenders ups its rates, it means they are getting too busy and they need to honour their service levels. When another lender follows suite, it could just be that they are now the leading lender and also need to be careful not to take on more than they can chew. The worry always comes when a whole group of lenders move their rates up together, it shows that something is happening and its the ripple effect. Best to carry on as normal for now and see how the other lenders react as the month goes on.

As for the new high value ranges, lenders dont get as much of this business as they would like, so they are probably trying to attract higher value clients and less of the low value 'time consuming' ones.

It all seems to me like they are just being wary of their serive times.