Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) and Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) have followed NatWest in hiking mortgage rates, despite expectations that Bank of England will lower borrowing costs over the next two months.
From tomorrow, Halifax, the UK's biggest mortgage lender and part of FTSE 100-listed Lloyds, will raise increases on two-year and five-year fixed mortgages by between 0.11% and 0.24%.
Halifax will also raise rates on some mortgage transfers and other products for those looking to either remortgage or extend their existing loans.
Barclays said that most of its rates for purchase and remortgage will go up by 0.2%.
As for NatWest, which hiked rates earlier this week, this means that three of the UK largest high street lenders will no longer be offering rates below 4% except for some five-year fixed deals.
Commenting on the move, Rohit Kohli, director at broker The Mortgage Stop, said the big lenders are "looking to protect their profit margins".
Following moves from these three giant lenders, he said it was "a surprise move" but "other lenders may soon follow".
Expectations have grown that the BoE will cut rates at its meetings in November and December, after inflation was revealed to have fallen to a three-year low.
As a result, Stephen Perkins, managing director at Yellow Brick Mortgages, said there could be "U-turns over the coming weeks" by these very same banks, "unless they are anticipating greater than predicted economic fallout from the Autumn budget".
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the Budget on 30 October, with money markets having shifted to raise interest rate swaps due to concerns about a potential hike in government borrowing.
Craig Fish, director at Lodestone Mortgages & Protection, said the mortgage hikes were "just a temporary blip on the rate landscape following the recent increase in swap rates".
He predicted that with swap rates on the decline again this week due to the lower inflation rate, "lender rates will likely follow in the coming days and weeks, assuming there are no bloopers in the budget".