Nationwide ups tracker margins

Nationwide has increased the cost of its tracker loans by between 0.24% and 0.6%.

Earlier this month the UK’s biggest building society increased rates across it range of fixed-rate mortgages, in response to volatile money market swap rates.

However, this latest rise follows the Bank of England’s recent cut in the base rate, to 4.5%, shedding further doubt on the positive impact of a low base rate on the UK mortgage market.

From today, a Nationwide three-year tracker loan for borrowers with a 40% deposit will be available at 6.18%, up from 5.64%.

Those with smaller amounts of equity in their homes will pay more; borrowers with a deposit of less than 25% will attract a tracker rate margin of 2.03%, up from 1.43%.

Customers with between 10% and 15% of equity will be penalised with an increase from 1.49% to 2.08%, for a three year loan.

As with the earlier increases, Nationwide blames volatile money markets and changes made by its competitors for its latest actions, adding that more expensive deals also help the lender to maintain control of business volumes.

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