NatWest rolls out big change to mortgages which will be 'painful'

Fixed rate mortgage deals for NatWest have increased by as much as 0.35 per cent at the end of last week following the Bank of England’s announcement last week. NatWest has increased rates by up to 0.30% and 0.20%, respectively.

NatWest mortgages released a new range of fixed rate mortgage deals last Friday, which also saw the end of its sub 4% fixed rate mortgages. Changes include residential purchase rates up by as much as 0.30% and buy to let mortgages increasing by up to 0.19%.

David Stirling, Independent Financial Advisor at Belfast-based Mint Mortgages & Protection, said: "Following the October Budget, November spawned a mortgage monster. Poor borrowers are in its clutches, as yet another lender cools the property market with a rate hike.

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“It looks like pain for borrowers for the rest of the year with the chance of a Bank of England rate cut in December diminishing quickly.” Andrew Montlake, Managing Director at Coreco, told Newspage: "As the list of lenders increasing their rates gets longer, those borrowers who held off expecting mortgage rates to fall will be left licking their wounds.”

He went on and said: “The good news is that the mortgage market is set to open up once more in the new year, and canny purchasers will be looking to take advantage of a buyers' market before the floodgates ultimately open again."

Ben Perks, Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers, said: "Regrettably, rate rises are becoming the norm. Email after email is landing announcing increases and it looks like it’ll be a few weeks before this changes, at best.

"As markets come to terms with the latest Budget, things may start to settle, but this could take a while as Labour is doing very little to win them over.” And Ranald Mitchell, Director at Charwin Mortgages, said: "NatWest has joined the growing list of high street lenders and building societies raising rates, marking a disappointing close to a year that began with optimism.”