Mortgage borrowers warned of further rate rises as another lender pulls deals
Mortgage borrowers have been warned further rate rises "cannot be ruled out" as lenders continue to withdraw deals at a "relentless pace".
Santander is the latest major mortgage lender to announce a temporary pause on some mortgage applications.
The bank plans to relaunch its products on Wednesday with higher rates expected.
It comes after HSBC suspended "new business" residential and buy-to-let products via brokers last week before they returned at more expensive rates.
Its mortgages are now back on sale with the rates having been increased by up to 0.45 percentage points.
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NatWest has also upped rates for new residential mortgages by 0.2 percentage points, and for buy-to-let mortgages by up to 1.57 percentage points.
It comes following the rapid rise in mortgage rates over the past few weeks, after data showed UK inflation is not coming down as quickly as expected.
This has led to fears that the Bank of England will raise interest rates higher than previously thought to as high as 5.5%.
The base rate is currently at 4.5% with the next Bank of England announcement expected next Thursday (June 22).
Data from Moneyfacts shows the average two and five-year fixed-rate mortgages were sitting at 5.86% and 5.51% respectively on Monday - up from 5.49% and 5.17% on June 1.
David Hollingworth from London & Country told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "It's been pretty relentless for the last couple of weeks.
“We're back to that phase of you can't hang around if you are looking at a fixed rate."
A Santander spokesperson said: "We continually review our products in light of changing market conditions.
"As we prepare for a relaunch of a full range of mortgage products from Wednesday morning, we will not be accepting new applications via intermediary and online channels temporarily from this evening.
"Our product transfer range remains fully available and customers who have already applied will not be impacted."
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Bank of England policymaker Jonathan Haskel this week warned further interest rate rises "cannot be ruled out" unless inflation dramatically falls.
The Bank of England has a target of 2% inflation - in April, inflation slowed from 10.1% to 8.7%.
Writing in The Scotsman, Mr Haskel said: "Things look better than a few months ago.
“Since October last year, inflation has fallen from 11.1% to 8.7%, and we expect it to be around 5% by the end of this year. But inflation remains much too high."
Why are mortgage payments rising?
If you're on a tracker mortgage, these types of deals move in line with the base rate - so when interest rates rise, your monthly payments will go up.
If you're on a standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage, then you'll likely see your rates go up as well when the base rate increases.
It is down to your lender to decide whether to pass on the increase - and unsurprisingly, most do decide to do this.
If you’re on a fixed-rate mortgage, the rate rise won’t affect your monthly bill until your current deal expires.
This means you're protected for now - but many who locked into their mortgage deal when rates were cheap will be in for a nasty shock when they come to remortgage, due to how much rates have risen.
If you're on a variable rate or your mortgage is ending in the next six months, you might want to check now if you can lock into a new deal.
Many lenders let you secure a new deal three to six months in advance.
If rates do come down, then you might be able to cancel the deal you've agreed to - but check with your lender before signing up first.
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