Santander has delayed residential affordability rate cuts that were due to appear on its online calculator for brokers.

The high street bank said on Tuesday that it would reduce its residential affordability rates and that intermediaries would be able to use its “affordability calculator on our website to find out what your clients could borrow” today (4 December).

But the lender now says on its intermediary hub that the rate reduction “has been temporarily delayed and hasn’t gone live today.

“We’re expecting the change to go live by the end of this week.”

It adds: “Your business is important to us and we’ll give you a further update as soon as we can.”

The announcement comes as a range of lenders including Barclays, HSBC, Generation Home, MPowered, and Coventry have all lowered rates over the last week.

Private Finance technical director Chris Sykes says: “These rate decreases may help bring down average mortgage rates slightly, but they are unlikely to impact the most competitive rates.

“It is likely the reductions are driven by increased competition among lenders striving to attract last-minute business before their lending targets reset at the end of the year.”