NatWest will raise new business rates across a range of residential and landlord products by up to 22 basis points, launching several high value home loan deals from tomorrow (30 April). 

The high street lender’s rate rises include: 

• Purchase — rate increase of up to 21bps and 18bps on selected two- and five-year deals 
• Remortgage – rate increase of up to 22bps and 21bps on selected two- and five-year deals 
• First time buyer — rate increase of up to 21bps and 18bps on selected two- and five-year deals 
• Buy-to-let purchase — rate increase of up to 22bps on selected two- and five-year deals 
• BTL remortgage — rate increase of up to 22bps on selected two- and five-year deals 

The lender also introduces a range of new high value two- and five-year deals purchase and remortgage products with a minimum loan size of £2m. 

The rate rises from the bank come after it lifted existing customer switcher deals by 10bps across selected two- and five-year deals last week. 

It also follows price hikes from major lenders such as HSBC, Barclays, Virgin Money as money markets bet that the first Bank of England base rate cut may be pushed back into the second half of the year. 

John Charcol head of marketing Nicholas Mendes says: “An inevitable move from NatWest following the market movement and competitor repricing last week in which most high street lenders increased two- and five-year fixed rates. 

“This latest reprice, I expect will put pressure on Nationwide and Santander to make similar moves this week to avoid being market leaders and avoid impact to their service levels. 

“While we anticipate a reduction in fixed rates, the timeline for this adjustment may be somewhat longer than initially expected.”