"The mini-rate war in the residential mortgage market appears to be continuing, with the main six lenders in the market having all now slashed their fixed rate offerings."
Barclays has become the latest mortgage lender to reduce rates across its range.
From today, rates will decrease by 0.30% across selected product transfers and further advance products.
For existing residential mortgage customers, highlights include a two-year fixed rate at 85% LTV, down from 6.96% to 6.66% with no fee.
At above 85% LTV, selected two and five-year fixed rate product transfer deals have reduced from 7.03% to 6.73% with no fee.
Newspage asked brokers if this could trigger another wave of rate reductions and how pivotal the labour market and inflation data being published this week will be to lender pricing moving forwards.
Ben Tadd, director at Lucra Mortgages, said: "The mini-rate war in the residential mortgage market appears to be continuing, with the main six lenders in the market having all now slashed their fixed rate offerings. This is now likely to force smaller lenders to follow suit and drop their prices to stay in touch with the competition. This week's inflation data on Wednesday will be crucial to dictating lender pricing in the immediate future and, with further positive inflation numbers anticipated, the rate war is likely to continue apace."
Riz Malik, founder and director at R3 Mortgages, commented: "We appear to be in the midst of a mortgage rate rollback. We were expecting Barclays to join the other main lenders and reprice last week but better late than never. Given the release of significant economic data this week, Barclays' rate revision might prompt other lenders to reassess and possibly lower their rates further, especially if the market remains favourable. This is starting off to be another positive week for mortgage borrowers, even for those borrowing at higher loan to values."
Lewis Shaw, owner and mortgage expert at Shaw Financial Services, said: "After last week's news of major lenders reducing rates, it was only a matter of time until Barclays joined the fray. Now that the big six are in the mix it’s time for the rest of the market to jump aboard the lowering rate train. Expect more cuts to come if the inflation data on Wednesday is positive and bring a much-needed boost to worried mortgage holders about to face remortgaging in the coming months."
Craig Fish, director at Lodestone Mortgages & Protection, added: "It's good to see the last of the Big 6 reduce their rates in alignment with the other lenders. But that is all this is. It is by no means a rate war, this is where the lender's rates should have been. Having realised they aren't writing enough business to survive, they had to adjust their rates accordingly. If we see some positive inflation data released this week, then I strongly suspect that we might get the first sniff of a rate war. The big question is who will be the first to jump."
