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This is a real mixed bag, with mortgage lenders typically increasing rates, such as Barclays and HSBC, while NatWest flexes its muscles out of state ownership with rate cuts due later in the week

This was originally designed to help lenders stretch to 90-95% Loan to Value at a time when confidence within the market was low, so this looks to be a positive step without causing too many ripples with lenders,

explained that while, pre-Covid, having a city centre high-street office was “more of a status symbol”, he supported having “good, well-priced offices just a mile outside of the city

Though these are small-ish rate increases in the main, high street lenders pricing mortgages on wafer-thin margins and wobbles in the swap market will be passed onto borrowers within a few days. Other mainstream lenders will inevitably follow as no one lender will want to be cheapest, and therefore attract too much business.

Though these are small-ish rate increases in the main, high street lenders pricing mortgages on wafer-thin margins and wobbles in the swap market will be passed onto borrowers within a few days. Other mainstream lenders will inevitably follow as no one lender will want to be cheapest, and therefore attract too much business.

Leasehold properties have become less appealing to buy over the past decade, and this is one of the most serious reasons. We have seen a number of problems with fire certificates. Lenders are very mixed with how they assess these documents, which doesn’t help the situation, and it’s more difficult when agents start to tell you which lenders are better than others on these properties.

Ultimately, mortgage brokers have to sort out the mess such as this when we receive enquiries from clients who think the impossible can be achieved,

we will likely see mortgage rates creep back over that 4% line in the coming days

Some mortgage lenders allow people to reserve a mortgage deal before they have found their ideal property. He pointed out that this helps with avoiding rate increases that may happen with little to no notice, but if rates fall borrowers can jump on that saving too.

Given that the GDP data was broadly in line with expectations, the markets will be more interested in the Q2 figures, showing the impact of NI increases and tariffs in particular. Mortgage rate cuts may not be as prolific as some were predicting for the rest of 2025 but recent improvements should hold for now.