Reductions of up to 0.35 per cent have been made to its two, three and five-year fixed options while two-year tracker deals are up to 0.2 per cent lower in pricing.
This includes a five-year fix at 60 per cent loan to value (LTV) with a £999 fee, which is now 5.24 per cent, down from 5.49 per cent. A two-year fix at the same tier with no fee has been reduced by 0.35 per cent to 5.99 per cent.
Also at 60 per cent LTV, the two-year fix with a £999 fee has been cut from 6.09 per cent to 5.79 per cent.
A five-year fix at 80 per cent LTV with a £999 fee has been reduced by 0.2 per cent to 5.29 per cent.
A two-year tracker rate at 85 per cent LTV with a £999 fee has been lowered by 0.1 per cent to 5.34 per cent.
The mutual is also reducing rates across selected two, three and five-year fixed additional borrowing products by up to 0.35 per cent.
Henry Jordan, director of home at Nationwide Building Society, said: “With swap rates having fallen slightly in recent weeks, we have been able to reduce rates on our switcher range. These reductions demonstrate our continued efforts to support existing members who are coming to the end of their current deal.
“The new rates also reinforce our existing mortgage member pricing pledge whereby our switcher rates are the same or lower than our remortgage equivalents.”
More welcome news
Reacting to the rate changes, brokers said this had been a positive week for mortgage pricing.
Rohit Kohli, operations director at The Mortgage Stop, said this was “more welcome news this week from another major lender”.
He added: “Hopefully, this calms things down for the mortgage and property market. All eyes are now firmly on next Thursday’s meeting at Threadneedle Street but with inflation still high and the Bank of England bruising from heavy criticism that it was slow to act, I’m still expecting another rise next Thursday.
“These cuts this week are about following the swap rates, which have eased off from their peak just a few weeks ago but they are still predicting higher base rates than where we are today.”
Lee Gathercole, co-founder at Rebus Financial Services, agreed, adding: “It’s been quite a positive week for mortgage interest rates and great to see a lender like Nationwide following suit. With inflation dropping more than anticipated I think we will see only a marginal increase in the Bank of England base rate next week and the likelihood of further rate increases beyond this drop severely this will be pleasing for most homeowners.”
Jamie Alexander, mortgage director at Alexander Southwell Mortgage Services, said lenders had already factored in the worst-case scenarios but with better than expected inflation figures, they were no longer under pressure to mitigate any challenges.
He added: “Given that the rate increases in recent months may have been slightly excessive, it is anticipated that more lenders will revise their rates downwards in the upcoming weeks. Fingers crossed.”
Ben Tadd, director at Lucra Mortgages, said this was a rate war, albeit small, adding that the next base rate decision was unlikely to lead to increased pricing as lenders had already factored this into product ranges.
A short-lived respite
However, with the next base rate decision due next week, other brokers still questioned how long the positivity would last.
Darryl Dhoffer, mortgage expert at The Mortgage Expert, said after the base rate decision which was to be followed by inflation figures and swap rates, “only then will we be able to see any trends on other lenders following suit”.
He added: “You can flip this the other way, with Nationwide planning to counter any reductions on rates by other lenders, and placing themselves favourably for client retention. Their outlook might be client retention as opposed to attracting new business.”
Mike Staton, director at Staton Mortgages, said it was inevitable that rates would fall.
He said: “The main issue is how long will this last, this isn’t the first time we have seen a spate of reductions. We still have some way to go before the market stabilizes, unfortunately, the last year seems to have been one step forward and two steps back on too many occasions.”
