Mortgage rates set to drop after tariff turmoil

Lenders are set to cut rates on mortgages after turmoil from US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy raised expectations that UK interest rates could be cut further this year.

TSB Bank said it will reduce some two-year fixed rate mortgages by up to 0.25 percentage points on Wednesday, following MPowered Mortgages which trimmed rates on across a number of its deals.

Financial markets and economists are predicting that the Bank of England will cut interest rates by more than expected this year to avoid an economic downturn.

The interest rate is 4.5% and the Bank was forecast to reduce it twice this year but the uncertainty created by US tariffs has changed the outlook to three cuts to 3.75%.

The average two-year and five-year fixed rates were unchanged on Tuesday, at 5.32% and 5.17% respectively, according to financial information company Moneyfacts.

Though spokesperson Rachel Springall said: “Mortgage rates are expected to come down in the coming weeks.”

Mortgage brokers told the BBC that if so-called swap rates, which lenders use to price loans, stay as they are then some mortgage rates may fall to as low as 3.79% in the coming weeks.

However, the lowest rate deals will not be available to all borrowers, particularly first-time buyers, and may come with a hefty fee.

Much depends on what the Bank of England decides to do this year with interest rates, as lenders tend to price their mortgage products according the main rate.

Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the Bank of England, and other countries’ central banks, “will be really looking to cut interest rates as much as possible in order to support growth”.

“And of course mortgage companies start to price that in right away and we’ve already seen mortgage rates start to fall and we should see plenty of that in the coming days,” she added.