Despite the Bank of England maintaining the base rate at 4%, and not being expected to alter it before December at the earliest, there remains movement in the wider market around mortgages

Homeowners looking to renew their mortgage before the end of the year have received a boost, with four major lenders lowering the interest rates on some deals.

Despite the Bank of England maintaining the base rate at 4%, and not being expected to alter it before December at the earliest, there remains movement in the wider market around both savings and mortgages.

Last week, Zopa bank brought out an inflation-beating 4.75% easy-access savings account, and now some households have another positive to consider, with lowered rates on mortgage deals.

Barclays announced five five-year products with newly lowered rates, ranging from 60% to 95% loan-to-value, with the lowest interest rate among these products coming in at 3.91%.

HSBC did not announce exact cuts, but lowered a raft of residential mortgage products, with Santander then following suit, lowering fixed rates by as much as 0.36% in some three-year fixes. On Monday, NatWest also reduced rates, including lowering a two-year fixed deal to 3.77%.

More than 400,000 homeowners will be coming to the end of a fixed-term deal before 31 December, mortgage and finance expert Jo Hodgson told The Independent, with the vast majority likely to need to renew their agreement.

Those who took out two-year deals initially will find interest rates are lower this time round – but those coming to the end of post-Covid purchases on five-year fixes will be preparing for a rise in payments.

There are early positive signs for mortgage rates after the rate of inflation for September held steady, undershooting expectation, David Hollingworth from L&C Mortgages said.

He added: Hopes that inflation may have peaked at a lower level than expected have opened the door to a reduction in the Bank of England base rate before the end of the year. As market forecasting has improved, swap rates have fallen further, which should give lenders the chance to improve their fixed rates.