Copy article

Santander "seizes the spotlight" by cutting selected fixed rate deals

Journalist: Justin Moy, Contributing Editor

ended 27. March 2024

Santander has just announced cuts on a selected range of residential and buy-to-let deals, by as much as 0.21% on some rates from Thursday 28th March. Newpage asked brokers for their views on these cuts, if they go far enough, and if there are more cuts due from major lenders before Easter is upon us. Their views are below.

15 responses from the Newspage community

Copy all

Star Quote
Copy

Platinum
Elliott Culley
Director at Switch Mortgage Finance
Santander are the latest lender to join the party with a handful of rate reductions. They have also spread the love to landlords by reducing the rates for their buy-to-let range as well. Expect more lenders to join in as they start to get FOMO.
Star Quote
Copy

Ying Tan
CEO at Habito
It is great to see the direction of travel. Well done Santander for following a number of other lenders cutting rates. However, in the interest of consumers, we need more and larger cuts to really get the market moving during the important spring period.
Star Quote
Copy

Charles Breen
Founder at C B
Santander seizes the spotlight by slashing rates. Is this the beginning of a stampede of rate cuts we are about to see? Have lenders finally grown a backbone and started doing what we were all crying out for? While the cuts are small, they're better than nothing. When are we going to see more lenders joining the mortgage joust? Or is it only Santander and Barclays who are going to get all the glory?
Copy

Editor
Rohit Kohli
Director at The Mortgage Stop
It’s been a busy day today with many lenders making tweaks to their products. We still haven’t seen lenders reduce by as much as the movement in swaps and gilts. Perhaps they don’t want a slew of applications just before the Easter break when many will have reduced staff?
Copy

Editor
Stephen Perkins
Managing Director at Yellow Brick Mortgages
Some good news from Santander ahead of the Easter Bank Holiday, with the lender reducing their rates for new business on residential and buy-to-let products. These again look like business level management reductions rather than hopping out in front of the competition.
Copy

Editor
Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
As another lender enters the fray, I’m starting to feel optimistic about the weeks ahead. Swap rates have been reducing and some lenders are starting to pass those savings on to the borrower.
If this keeps up, we’ll be back on track and the pressure on the Bank of England to drop the base rate will start to become unbearable.
Copy

Editor
Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
Any rate cuts are welcome, as borrowers ultimately benefit from reduced payments, but 0.02% really worth it? It's like having Rola Cola on a hot day, you need a cold drink but are left underwhelmed pretty quickly.
Copy

Editor
Katy Eatenton
Mortgage & Protection Specialist at Eatenton Finance
Finally, Santander make their move. It may not be a huge reduction- but it’s still a reduction, across the board. Barclays, Accord and HSBC’s rate changes are all over the shop.
Copy

Editor
Andrew Montlake
Managing Director at Coreco
It’s great to see one of the top lenders cutting rates ones more in a move that should hopefully encourage others to follow suit.
The market needs positive sentiment in order to reinvigorate activity once more, and with inflation on a clear downward trajectory towards a summer Bank Base Rate cut, lenders will begin to feel more competitive once more.
Copy

Editor
Dariusz Karpowicz
Director at Albion Financial Advice
Santander slicing rates right before Easter. It’s like an early holiday treat for the housing market! 🐣 This move in trimming down mortgage rates, by up to 0.21% no less, could very well set the stage for a domino effect, prompting other lenders to sweeten their own deals. As long as we dodge any major global upheavals or concerning UK economic data, this could be the start of a trend that sees more accessible mortgage options bloom just in time for spring. Brokers, get ready; this rate cut could be just the appetizer in a feast of financial adjustments aimed at making home ownership or investment more attainable. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for more good news!
Copy

Mark Robinson
Managing Director at Albion Forest Mortgages
In a refreshing plot twist to the turbulent story that has been 2024, we have seen a torrent of rate reductions this week. Hopefully this shows improved confidence in the market, and we start seeing lower rates for the remainder of the year.
Copy

Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
Santander has the feel-good factor over market conditions it seems as they drop some fixed rates by up to .21% taking effect from this Thursday. As this week develops the mortgage rate war is raging hotter and hotter as lenders fight to maintain their market share of applications.
Copy

Hannah Bashford
Director at Model Financial Solutions
Another hectic day of rate tweaking, but thank you Santander for simply reducing some of your rates and not increasing some. Constant rate hokey cokey by a few base points is tiresome and confusing.
Lets hope this is the start of a positive change to rates and after the Easter bank holiday we see some serious competiton hotting up!
Copy

Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
It's lovely to see a good amount of time given of this rate change, but then it's always easier to give reasonable notice when rates are going down, it's doing so when rates are rising that is the important and more challenging side of the coin. Sadly, we again see some real "tinkering" with rates; a 0.02% reduction on some deals is creating us and the lender work for very little real benefit, but more importantly we again see a lender asking their broker partners to be at work well beyond the time they would expect their own staff to be available; as with the notice period comment above, this is less of an issue when rates are falling, but a massive issue when rates are rising and unfair on the mortgage professionals who are being asked to work well beyond the hours they should expect to and with little or no real notice.
Copy

Akhil Mair
Director at Our Mortgage Broker
Exciting news from Santander with their latest rate cuts on residential and buy-to-let deals. While any reduction is certainly welcomed by homeowners and investors alike, there's still a strong sentiment that more rate cuts, especially for longer terms, are needed to truly support borrowers in this challenging economic climate. Nevertheless, it's encouraging to see Santander taking steps to make mortgage products more affordable and accessible. Here's hoping these cuts are just the beginning of a trend towards greater affordability and flexibility in the mortgage market.