Well, we knew it was coming, didn’t we? Sure enough, after months of speculation, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee announced on 4 August that it was cutting the base rate from 0.5% to a record low of 0.25% and in doing so turned a traditionally sleepy August into a criteria-changing frenzy.
In a move that will no doubt be met with delight from tracker-rate and Standard Variable Rate (SVR) mortgage holders, a number of lenders were quick to pass on the rate cut to their customers.
TMW announced that from 1 September, all variable rate mortgages indexed to the base rate would be reduced by 0.25%. It’s the same date Virgin Money will reduce its rates, taking its buy-to-let variable rate to 4.74%.
Skipton also introduces the rate reduction from the start of September, and says the rate cut will mean its UK expat three-year discount mortgages (for mortgages over £300,000) will now be at its lowest ever buy-to-let expat rate of 2.99%. The society also announced cuts of up to 0.50% on its fixed-rate buy-to-let range, effective from 19 August.
Santander brought in its 0.25% reduction of tracker rates earlier, with the change coming into play from 9 August.
Elsewhere, Aldermore launched a limited edition range of five-year fixed rate buy-to-let mortgages for private individuals including a rate of 3.18% up to 70% loan-to-value (LTV) (loans up to £1m) and 3.25% to 75% LTV (loans up to £600,000).
Precise launched its “new and improved” buy-to-let range earlier in the month. The range includes reductions to fixed rates and trackers and core buy-to-let fees reduced by 0.50% to 1.50% on all two-year and five-year fixed-rate products and all two-year tracker products.
Meanwhile, Accord launched a number of new three and five-year fixed-rate deals starting from 2.59% as well as extending the end dates on all its fixed-rate two and three-year products to 30 November.