HSBC has withdrawn all its mortgage deals for new customers after being inundated by applications from borrowers rushing to refinance before rates rise again.
The lender gave borrowers just four hours’ notice yesterday that it was going to withdraw its new business, residential and buy-to-let offers at 5pm.
But it was forced to close applications even earlier, at 3.30pm, after receiving a flood of inquiries. No mortgage products will be available to new customers of HSBC until Monday at the earliest.
Homeowners and buyers have rushed to lock in deals as rates keep increasing amid the ongoing turmoil in the mortgage market.
Banks and building societies have pulled hundreds more home loans in recent weeks, after official figures revealed that inflation had remained higher than expected, at 8.7% in April.
David Hollingworth, of mortgage broker L&C, said: “Lenders are having to make tough decisions because the market is moving so quickly.
“We haven’t seen such a big lender withdraw rates like this in 2023, it is quite radical.
“HSBC was at the top of the buy list because they hadn’t repriced in a whole week. It’s no wonder it was inundated, and it just shows the speed rates are moving at.”
HSBC commented: “To ensure that we can stay within our operational capacity and meet our customer service commitments, we occasionally need to limit the amount of new business we can take each day.”
Hundreds of mortgage deals pulled from market as lenders raise rates
