Barclays turns up the heat on high street rivals as lenders battle for a shrinking pool of borrowers
Barclays has become the latest major lender to lower mortgage rates, cutting pricing across selected purchase, remortgage and Reward products as competition intensifies at the start of 2026.
The changes, effective from Friday 9 January, apply to a range of fixed-rate deals up to 80% loan-to-value (LTV), with reductions on both fee-paying and fee-free products. While most of the adjustments are cuts, Barclays has also made a small increase to one product in its purchase range.
Purchase range: two- and five-year fixes cut
In the purchase segment, Barclays is trimming rates on a selection of two- and five-year fixed products for borrowers with deposits of 25% and above.
Key changes include:
-
A two-year fix at 60% LTV with a £899 fee falling from 3.63% to 3.57%
-
A two-year fix at 75% LTV with a £899 fee cut from 3.70% to 3.61%
-
A five-year fix at 80% LTV with no product fee reduced from 4.08% to 4.00%
All three deals are available for loans between £5,000 and £2 million.
Remortgage range: cuts for two- and five-year fixes
Barclays is also reducing pricing for remortgagers, including its Great Escape proposition designed to help borrowers switch with reduced upfront costs.
Headline changes include:
-
A two-year fixed remortgage at 75% LTV with a £999 fee cut from 3.82% to 3.78%
-
The Great Escape 2-year fixed remortgage at 75% LTV with no product fee reduced from 4.12% to 4.10% (min loan £50,000, max £2 million)
-
A five-year fixed remortgage at 60% LTV with a £999 fee cut from 3.81% to 3.76%
Loan sizes on the core remortgage range start from £5,000 up to £2 million.
EMC Reward: rate reductions for existing customers
Existing Barclays mortgage customers on the bank’s EMC Reward range will also see lower pricing on selected two- and five-year fixes at 60% LTV.
Changes include:
-
A two-year fixed EMC Reward product with a £999 fee reduced from 3.70% to 3.67%
-
A five-year fixed EMC Reward with a £999 fee cut from 3.80% to 3.75%
-
A five-year fixed EMC Reward with no product fee reduced from 3.99% to 3.95%
These Reward products are available from £1,000 up to £2 million.
‘Not quite market leaders, but not far off’
Commenting on the latest move from Barclays, Aaron Strutt, product and communications director at Trinity Financial, said the changes underline how early-year competition is already building among the high street banks.
“Barclays is the latest lender to kick off the year by lowering its mortgage rates with the aim of giving Santander and Nationwide a bit more competition to top the best buy tables,” he said. “These new rates are not quite market leaders, but they are not far off.”
Strutt highlighted that the bank’s income multiples and pricing combination will be particularly noteworthy for some borrowers.
“The bank is now offering six times salary mortgages with two-year fixes priced just over 3.5%, which seems pretty generous when compared to the last few years,” he added.
Stronger competition expected in 2026
Strutt pointed to UK Finance forecasts and the volume of borrowers refinancing this year as key drivers of the emerging price war.
“With UK Finance predicting 10,000 fewer property transactions in 2026 compared to 2025 and 1.8 million borrowers coming to the end of their fixed rates, competition between the lenders to issue more mortgages is likely to be even stronger this year,” he said.
“We can expect to see some more criteria easing and hopefully even cheaper fixed rates.”
Barclays’ latest move follows reductions in rates from other HSBC earlier in the week, as lenders respond to lower funding costs and an improving outlook for the Bank of England base rate. While the bank’s latest changes do not set new headline lows, they add further pressure to rivals and offer borrowers more sub-4% options across both two- and five-year terms at mainstream LTVs.
