"Rising swap rates seem to be the primary cause as several lenders have increased rates this week."
More lenders have announced increases to their residential mortgage rates due to rising swap rates and uncertainty surrounding next week's Budget and the upcoming Bank Rate decision.
Barclays has increased rates on a selection of two and five-year fixed rate products within its residential purchase and remortgage new lending ranges.
Coventry Building Society is also increasing rates on all two, three and five-year fixed rates in its new business range, including offset and interest-only, from next week.
Virgin Money is increasing selected residential exclusive two and five-year rates for purchase and remortgage, alongside selected two and 10-year fixes in its core residential range. However, it has also reduced a range of residential purchase exclusives and launched new three-year fixed rates at 90% LTV, as well as reducing buy-to-let rates by up to 0.45%.
Earlier this week, Accord Mortgages increased residential rates by up to 0.40%.
Brokers reacted to the news:
Gary Boakes, director at Verve Financial, commented: "We've now had HSBC, Accord, Platform and Barclays come out with rate increases this week. This is not a surprise with the increase in swap rates and the impending Budget and likely base rate increase of 0.25%-5%. In the short term, the market was always going to have its up and downs while inflation and the Bank of England base rate were high. I fully expect more lenders to follow suit this and next week."
Gareth Davies, director at South Coast Mortgage Services, said: "We need to get used to this. Any lender that regularly sits at number one on the sourcing tables won't want to stay there for too long. This has been evident with Platform, HSBC, Virgin, Nationwide and now Barclays."
Graham Cox, director at Self employed mortgage broker SEMH, commented: "Rising swap rates seem to be the primary cause as several lenders have increased rates this week. Swaps rose approx 0.7% in February, yet Barclays have pushed up their mortgage rates by just 0.2-0.32%. So there's clearly an attempt to 'hold the line' and keep rates as low as possible in a slow market."
Anil Mistry, director and mortgage broker at RNR Mortgage Solutions, added: "It is not unexpected that another lender has chosen to emulate the actions of a few other lenders this week, likely in response to heightened swap rates. Nonetheless, it is admirable that Coventry Building Society provides brokers with a generous 48-hour advance notice before implementing such changes. This gives brokers ample time to prepare and submit applications, and may serve as a best practice for other lenders to consider adopting."
