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Santander and NatWest up rates

Journalist: Callum Mason, i

ended 11. March 2024

Santander and NatWest have both upped some mortgage rates this morning.

Despite this, some brokers have said rates are likely to fall next week and beyond as Swap rates have started to fall in the 5-year market.

Can we expect mortgage rates to fall in next few weeks and beyond? And much of this depends on the inflation figure next week?

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Dariusz Karpowicz
Director at Albion Financial Advice
The news today is a mixed bag for mortgage hopefuls. Santander and NatWest's rate hikes are certainly a setback, especially after the recent optimism around falling swap rates. However, those swap rates, which reflect lenders' borrowing costs, have been dropping in the 5-year market, leading some brokers to believe mortgage rates may actually fall in the coming weeks. The key factor to watch is next week's inflation figures. If they show a decrease, it could signal the Bank of England is nearing a pause, or even a cut, in interest rates. This would likely translate to lower mortgage rates from lenders. The disappointing Spring Budget, which lacked significant measures to address the UK housing market, certainly doesn't help. It reinforces the idea that affordability will remain a challenge, even if rates do come down.
So, while today's news is discouraging, there's still a chance for better rates in the near future.
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Mark Robinson
Managing Director at Albion Forest Mortgages
The bigger high street lenders are much more closely following swap rates currently, so they may start reducing rates again going forward quite soon with the dip in swap rates recently. The wider lender market seem to be waiting longer, which has actually made their rates more stable and we may see rates come down more steadily across the rest of the year.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
We expect mortgage interest rates to fall over the next 2 weeks, obviously reliant on the inflation data coming in as expected, downwards, and this should allow UK household budgets to ease a little on any renewing mortgages. We'll soon find out if strategic activity is underway if the Bank of England lowers its base rate at the next monetary meeting - lining us up for a potential May General Election, potentially. Yes I know they are totally independent, obviously...........................................
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Robert Timm
Managing Director at Sunland Mortgages
Gilts have began to fall, and SWAPs usually follow quite closely. The potisive thing is the trend of increases seems to have been arrested, and we all hope this will continue at pace. It was, of course, disappointing to see two high street lenders increase rates right at the start of a new week, but this should hopefully be a temporary blip.
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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
However, Santander are still sourcing very high on the list and are sub 4% for some products. There is a lot of hype when a lender adjusts rates, even when its only 0.01%.