Halifax hikes home loan rates in 20th set of changes this year

Halifax, the UK's biggest mortgage lender, will hike the rates on its home loans by up to another 50 basis points today, forcing remortgaging homeowners and first-time buyers to shell out even more on their monthly payments.

As of this morning, Halifax will increase the rate on 19 of its 31 fixed-rate mortgages, and five of its 32 tracker mortgages. The rises will be applied across the board, hitting both those with only a small amount of equity in their homes, as well as those with much smaller loans proportionate to their property's value.

The average fixed-rate rise will be 42 basis points (0.42 per cent), with some hikes as high as 50 basis points. The average tracker rate hike will be 25 basis points, with some products rising by as much as 30 points.

The latest rate hikes are reputed to be the 20th set of mortgage rate changes that the bank has made in 2008 alone. The bank's most competitive two-year fixed rate deal will now be 6.99 per cent, a whole percentage point higher than the most competitive two-year fixes on the market.

Explaining the rises, Nathan Wallis, a spokesperson for Halifax, said: "Over the past few weeks, most major lenders have increased their pricing on a number of occasions. Wholesale money is very expensive. In addition, swap rates have moved up in recent weeks – that means that fixed rates have become more expensive. Unfortunately, these increased costs have to be passed on to new customers by banks and building societies. Pricing is going up in just five out of 32 within the tracker range, and within the fixed range over half remain unchanged."

Melanie Bien, a director of the independent mortgage broker Savills Private Finance, said people looking to remortgage or buy a home in the next few months should hurry to try to secure a good rate now.