Halifax cuts mortgage rates

Halifax cuts mortgage rates

Mortgage rates have continued to fall with the UK's biggest lender announcing it was cutting the cost of its deals for the second time in a week.

Halifax said it was reducing its two-year fixed rate mortgages by 0.1% and its five-year fixed rate ones by 0.15%.

The group, which had previously cut rates on Friday last week, said it was making the move to keep its pricing in line with the market after its competitors had reduced their rates.

A number of major lenders, including Nationwide, Abbey and Lloyds TSB's lending arm Cheltenham & Gloucester, have cut their rates during the past two weeks following a fall in swap rates, upon which fixed rate mortgages are based.

As a result of Friday's change, a two-year fixed rate mortgage for someone with at least a 25% deposit who pays a £1,330 arrangement fee will fall by 0.1% to 6.47%.

Other lenders in the HBOS group are also reducing their rates, with Intelligent Finance reducing 15 of its tracker deals by up to 0.3%, while Bank of Scotland is cutting three of its self-certification trackers by 0.1%.

A number of buy-to-let loans offered by Bank of Scotland and BM Solutions are also being reduced by up to 0.25% and up to 0.2% respectively.

All of the new rates come into effect from Saturday.