25
Jul
Halifax Cuts Mortgage Rates Again
The UK's biggest mortgage lender, Halifax, is cutting some of its
interest rates for new borrowers, for the third time this month.
The changes, which come into effect from Saturday, will cut the
rates on 16 different deals by up to 0.3%. Bank of Scotland, part
of the same group, is also cutting the cost of 29 different
mortgages. Halifax said the reductions were a response to the
recent flurry of rate cuts by other lenders. "We are just pricing
in line with the market," said a spokesman. Some of the most
popular sort of mortgages, those fixed for two years, are not being
changed as their rates were cut last weekend. But three and
five-year fixed rates, and the bank's two-year tracker rate, are
coming down by as much as 0.18%. House sales have slumped by 50% in
the past year and are heading lower with mortgage approvals
currently down 67% on a year ago. Halifax denied it was desperate
for business and said it still aimed to account for 20% of the
market. It pointed out that it was not altering the size of the
deposits it required from borrowers nor was it changing the
up-front fees for each deal. REPORT FROM BBC NEWS WEBSITE, FRIDAY
25TH JULY 2008