Barclays, NatWest and Santander trim fixed rates as lender competition builds into new year
Barclays, NatWest and Santander have all announced a new set of reductions to their fixed rate mortgage ranges, signalling renewed competition at the lower-risk end of the market as 2026 approaches.
Barclays will cut a selection of residential rates for remortgage customers and existing borrowers from tomorrow, Dec. 9, with a focus on 60% and 75% loan-to-value (LTV) lending. A number of two and five-year fixes in those bands will move further below 4%, with reductions of up to 10 basis points (bps) on certain two-year products and up to 5bps on five-year deals.
The changes extend across the lender’s Premier, standard and Great Escape ranges. Within the existing customer suite, the EMC Reward range has also been repriced, with selected products falling by between four and 12bps. The refreshed line-up includes both fee-free and fee-paying options on two- and five-year fixes at 60% and 75% LTV.
NatWest has also lowered pricing for a wide range of borrowers, including purchasers, remortgagers, first-time buyers and customers taking further advances.
In its purchase range at 60% LTV, the two-year fix with no fee has been reduced by 4bps to 3.97%. The equivalent products with fees of £995 and £1,495 have each been cut by 9bps, to 3.67% and 3.62% respectively.
At higher LTVs, the two-year fix at 90% LTV with no fee now stands at 4.35% after a 9bps reduction, while the £995-fee option has been trimmed by 3bps to 4.2%. For 95% LTV borrowers, the fee-free two-year fix has fallen by 6bps to 4.74%.
Five-year purchase fixes from 60% to 95% LTV have also been reduced. At 60% LTV, the deal with a £1,495 fee has come down from 3.83% to 3.75%, and the £995-fee option has been lowered to 3.8%. The fee-free five-year fix at the same LTV has been cut by 9bps to 3.91%.
NatWest has made further reductions across remortgage, first-time buyer, shared equity, green, buy-to-let and green buy-to-let products. For further advances, two- and five-year fixes up to 90% LTV have been repriced. At 60% LTV, the two-year fix with no fee is now 4.04% after a 6bps cut, and the £995-fee option has dropped by 8bps to 3.71%. The corresponding five-year fixes have each been reduced by 5bps, to 3.98% and 3.83%.
Santander is also cutting rates across new business and product transfer ranges, with fixed residential and buy-to-let products reduced by up to 0.15 percentage points. The new pricing, also available from tomorrow, means residential rates now start from 3.51%, down from 4.07% at the beginning of the year.
The lowest headline rates are aimed at home movers taking two- or five-year fixes up to 75% LTV, starting from 3.51% with a £1,999 fee. For first-time buyers, all two-year fixes at 85% and 90% LTV have been lowered by up to 0.15 percentage points, now starting from 4.06%, while five-year fixes at those tiers are down by up to 0.05 percentage points, from 4.19%.
Remortgage customers will see cuts of up to 0.12 percentage points, with two-year fixes from 3.69%, three-year fixes from 3.78% and five-year fixes from 3.71%.
In the buy-to-let segment, purchase rates have been reduced by up to 0.08 percentage points, with two-year fixes now starting from 3.74% and five-year deals from 3.93%. Buy-to-let remortgage rates are down by up to 0.09 percentage points, from 3.82%. The revised pricing is available through both intermediaries and direct channels under Santander’s no dual pricing commitment.
The latest moves come after a series of reductions across the high street, with Nationwide’s lowest rate currently at 3.58%.
Commenting on the current round of cuts, Nicholas Mendes, mortgage technical manager at London broker John Charcol, said the recent moves underlined intensifying competition at the top end of the market.
“Santander’s move to 3.51% has very clearly set the pace, and at the moment, it is the standout cheapest option for borrowers taking £500,000 or more, once fees are factored in,” said Nicholas Mendes (pictured right), mortgage technical manager at John Charcol. “Nationwide’s 3.58% sits just behind it, which shows how tight the spread has become at the top end of the market. This is textbook competitive positioning from the big lenders, and it signals a deliberate push to capture low-risk, high-equity borrowers before activity ramps up in the new year.
“We’re now seeing the first signs of a full-scale price war. NatWest and Barclays have both given notice of further reductions landing tomorrow, and the speed at which these updates are coming through tells you lenders want to be front of mind ahead of the next Bank of England decision. With swaps holding steady and market pricing pointing towards cheaper funding conditions, the high street is clearly preparing for stronger demand in early 2026.
Mendes stressed that borrowers should secure a deal now rather than assume that the current pace of cuts will continue.
“If we do not see a bank rate reduction next week, or if the voting behaviour on the MPC shifts in a more hawkish direction, markets will quickly readjust their expectations,” he pointed out. “That would feed straight back into swaps and could slow or even stall the reductions we are currently seeing. Acting now gives you the benefit of today’s pricing without relying on sentiment staying this favourable.”
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