Cheapest mortgage fixes drop to 3.5% – brokers answer if you should you lock in now or wait?

MSE_Kit

Major lenders including HSBC, Nationwide and Halifax have kicked off the new year by reducing rates on their fixed mortgage deals to as low as 3.5%. It's good news for the 1.8 million people with existing fixes due to end in 2026. But where will rates go from here – and should you fix your mortgage now or wait?

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'Cheapest mortgage fixes drop to 3.5% – brokers answer if you should you lock in now or wait?'

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ACG

I've had 2-3 emails today from lenders saying the will be reducing rates on Thursday.
No guarantees those rates will be cheaper overall, but it sounds like they will be lower by the end of the week than they are today. 

pottski

ACG said:

I've had 2-3 emails today from lenders saying the will be reducing rates on Thursday.
No guarantees those rates will be cheaper overall, but it sounds like they will be lower by the end of the week than they are today. 

Hi there, have any rates changed, in particular Halifax? 

RelievedSheff

Halifax changed their rates earlier this week.

We have a mortgage offer in place for a house move and changed to the lower rate when it was released.

This is the second time we have changed rate this month due to Halifax tinkering with rates. We have gone from our initial offer at 4.15% to our current offer of 4.04%.

Not a huge rate drop admittedly but it has saved is just short of £20 a month. Better in our pocket than the lenders.

We are not due to complete until towards the end of March so will keep an eye on any rate changes before.

Jemma01

What's the motivation? Are they anticipating a drop in boe base rate?

ACG

Jemma01 said:

What's the motivation? Are they anticipating a drop in boe base rate?

Im not sure, but every month I keep a table of the cheapest 90% mortgages (and 85% with adverse) that I put on our website. We all hear about the cheapest products at 60% but realistically how many people have that much deposit/equity. With everything in the news about rate changes I wanted to keep my own record to see what actually happens.

Although rates are not linked to the base rate directly, they do tend to broadly follow it. Going back to November time when we all sort of knew the rate would likely come down in December, the full 0.25% was not passed on when the rate dropped. So I think mortgage lenders have a slightly bigger profit margin now than they have had in recent months. 

Im not an economist, im only basing it on one factor etc etc. Take what I say with a pinch of salt. 

ReadySteadyPop

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/mortgage-rates-back-on-the-rise-three-more-major-lenders-hike-home-loan-prices/ar-AA1VvEFr

monkey-fingers

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867243#Comment_81867243

Just spoken to someone on the inside.
The reason these have dropped is because the banks in question have hit their targets. You'll see more of these offers get withdrawn.

Mortgage applications are ridiculously high at the moment, so they can afford to put them up a bit.

Sorry to burst your HPC bubble.

ReadySteadyPop

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868633#Comment_81868633

You don`t need "insider knowledge" nowadays, the info is all over the internet.

https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/bond/tmbmkgb-10y?countrycode=bx

ACG

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868633#Comment_81868633

Nothing to do with swop rates going up?

My mate is a product manager at a lender. He is saying it is down to swop rates. I would be amazed if any lender has hit any target by the end of January. Its an odd place to decide you have hit target.