The West Brom reduces rates across entire 3-year resi range by up to 30bps Mortgage Finance Gazette

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The West Brom has cut rates on its entire three-year fixed-rate suite of home loans by up to 30 basis points. 

The mutual says highlights across the range include a rate of 5.44% for remortgages at 75% loan to value, with a £999 fee and £500 cashback.  

The West Brom head of product Gareth Madeley says: “While rates have dipped in recent weeks, persistently high costs of living mean that it’s as important as ever for us to offer borrowers a competitive product when they come to remortgage.  

“These cuts will see rates reduce across our entire three-year range, keeping fees to a minimum with the additional support of cashback.” 

The move from the building society comes as borrowers look for cheaper options as 800,000 fixed-rate deals are due to end in the second half of this year, according to banking trade body UK Finance, with around 1.6 million deals ending in 2024.   

Many of the homebuying market’s core two- and five-year deals were signed at sub-2% mortgage rates, but both of these terms are now around 6%, as the Bank of England base rate has lifted 14 times since December 2021. The current central bank base rate is 5.25%.   

This has left homeowners continuing to sign higher two-year deals, while hoping that mortgages will ease over the period.   

However, other borrowers have sought different options, such as tracker, part-and-part, interest-only periods and three-year loans as interim bets, also hoping that fixed home loan rates fall in the short to medium term.