A succession of mortgage product drops in the lead-up to the Budget and in the weeks since has seen the likes of Barclays, Santander, NatWest, Nationwide and others all lower their best-available rates

Homeowners and prospective buyers are facing a mortgage boost as lenders collectively battle for business and drop rates as low as 3.51%.

Those on fixed-term five-year deals taken out during the post-lockdown buying spree in 2020 will have been watching with concern as they would be due to renew at the end of this year. At the time, they would have been on mortgage products with extremely low interest rates attached – but across 2022 and 2023, rates increased rapidly to combat inflation.

A succession of mortgage product drops in the lead-up to the Budget and in the weeks since has seen the likes of Barclays, Santander, NatWest, Nationwide and others all lower their best-available rates, with the expectation that the Bank of England’s vote next week will see the base rate lowered by the Monetary Policy Committee.

Barclays will see some remortgage deals go as low as 3.7% from Tuesday, NatWest has a 3.62% offering, and Santander has one product going as low as 3.51%.

Nationwide’s lowest rate, meanwhile, appeared last week at 3.58% – the first time in more than three years that the building society has offered a fixed mortgage rate below the 3.6% mark.

Property prices across the UK have only marginally risen month to month of late, but digging deeper into the data, Jonathan Hopper of Garrington Property Finders pointed out the regional differences made for a “K-shaped” development: Prices in the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland ratcheted up while they fell in London and surrounding counties, he said.

He said: The slide in London prices accelerated. Across the capital, they fell by 1% in the year to November, but in prime areas the falls have been even sharper.