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Santander hikes, and hikes big

ended 13. March 2026

Just as you thought it was safe to go to the pub and drink yourself into oblivion after a dire week for mortgages, Santander has come out and announced some more hikes. From Tuesday 17 March, the lender will be increasing its new business FTB, home mover, large loan, remortgage and BTL rates by up to 0.35%. Meanwhile, in its product transfer range, it's increasing residential and BTL rates by up to 0.30%. Your thoughts ASAP please before you head off to Spoons….

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Craig Fish
Director at Lodestone Mortgages
Just when brokers thought the worst was over, Halifax and Santander have torpedoed the week. Rate hikes across the board - new business, product transfers, BTL, the lot. Up to 0.35% in a single move on top of ythe 0.24% earlier in the week!This isn't a blip. Swap rates have surged on the back of Middle East tensions and markets walking back Bank of England cut expectations. Lenders are repricing fast and furiously to protect margins.The green shoots we'd carefully nurtured through early 2026, sub-4% deals, cautious optimism, clients finally ready to act have been torched in a matter of days. It feels uncomfortably like 2022 all over again.Brokers are heading into the weekend firefighting. Clients need reassurance, pipelines need protecting, and product transfers need locking in before Monday brings more bad news.The advice right now is simple: don't wait, don't speculate. Act.
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Stephen Perkins
Managing Director at Yellow Brick Mortgages
The bad news for borrowers just keeps piling up. This news from Santander so late on a Friday suggests we can expect more of the same next week. The rate increases we're now seeing and their impact on potential payments may see home buying or moving plans shelved. Hopefully, this will be a short term blip that will blow over once stability is restored in the geopolitical landscape. But for now the mortgage market is extremely volatile and lenders nerves are fraught.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
Santander actually repriced downwards on that weekend of the conflict, and held some very low rates for a week and a half before the increase last Wednesday, and those announced tonight that will start from Tuesday 17th.

Most lenders have suffered similar issues with pricing but at least Santander held their cheaper rates longer and have given a few days notice of this latest round of changes. Credit where credit is due to Santander.
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Aaron Strutt
Product and Communications Director at Trinity Financial
Santander has been offering many of the cheapest rates in the market for a while, so these price hikes were expected. Even with a 0.3% rate rise Santander’s fixes will still be reasonably priced given everything that’s going on at the moment, but Nationwide will be offering stand out best buy rates and will be busier. That in turn means it will have to push up its pricing sooner rather than later. It seems like the remaining sub-4% fixes will be pulled next week. It is good to see Santander give borrowers the weekend and Monday to get applications because many of the other lenders are giving very little notice before they pulled their mortgages.
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Simon Bridgland
Broker at Charwin Private Clients
Just when we thought the bad news for the week was over, Santander delivers the sucker punch to sum up what has been an awful week for borrowers, rates pulled, costs increased and no repreave on the horizon. Hopefully next week wont be a repeat of this one, but it really is anyones guess. Perhaps things might simmer down soon. Borrowers and brokers alike are clutching their pearls going into the weekend fearing the conflict in the Middle East may worsen and drive forward a repeat of the financial pain felt here.
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Rohit Parmar-Mistry
Founder at Pattrn Data
Santander’s move is a reminder that the mortgage market is not repricing in one clean step, it is repricing in waves. Even a 0.30% to 0.35% bump matters because it lands on top of already stretched affordability tests, and it hits first time buyers and remortgagers hardest.

The risk now is not just higher monthly payments. It is volatility: borrowers see rates jump, rush decisions, and then find products pulled or reissued days later. That is how you get bad outcomes, people fixing too short, or overpaying for certainty they do not need.

Lenders should be forced to show the “why” in plain English: funding costs, risk appetite, and capacity constraints. Advisers and brokers should be stress testing clients for another step up, not selling the idea that this is the last hike. If households are meant to plan, we need less surprise repricing and more transparent forward guidance.

Source: https://app.newspage.media/news-alerts/santander-hikes-and-hikes-big