Remortgage deals December 2023: the ultimate guide to the latest offers

To help you find the best deal, we’ve researched the best remortgage rates available now.

With the Bank of England base rate rising from 3.5% to 4% on 2 February – the highest it’s been for 14 years with 10 increases in a year – it could be sensible to review your mortgage to make sure you are on the best deal sooner rather than later. 

It’s also expected that the base rate will continue to rise in an attempt to curb high inflation, which fell slightly in December 2022 but is still currently at 10.5% – way above the Bank of England’s target of 2%. 

Your mortgage is probably your biggest monthly outgoing so keeping up to date with the latest remortgage deals is vital to ensure you are spending your money wisely and minimising the impact of rising prices on your finances as much as possible.

When you first take out a mortgage, lenders lure you in with a great deal for the first few years that’s usually cheaper than their standard variable rate (SVR), which generally goes up and down with the base rate. The deal usually lasts for two, three or five years but after this, your rate will jump up, which means higher monthly payments. 

So, what can you do? The answer lies in remortgaging. This is when you take out a new mortgage on a property you own, usually to replace your existing one to save money by getting another initial deal. You can do this either with a new lender or by switching to a new deal with the same one.

Taking out a fixed rate, which the majority of borrowers do, will give you peace of mind that you’ll know what your mortgage payments will be over the period of the deal. Just over three-quarters of all outstanding residential mortgages are fixed according to trade body UK Finance.

SVRs have increased recently along with the base rate. Fixed rates have increased by more, however, because they’re based on what lenders expect will happen to the base rate and wider economy in the future, but they are now starting to fall again.

‘Borrowers coming off their fixed rate deal will be disappointed to see this latest rise to the Bank of England base rate, particularly if they plan to sit on their standard variable revert rate over the shorter term in hopes that fixed rates will come down before they refinance,’ says Rachel Springall, a finance expert at Moneyfacts.co.uk.

‘The mortgage market is slowly recovering from the volatility of interest rate uncertainty towards the tail end of 2022, but the markets are expecting both rises and falls to base rate this year.’

You may also find our article on the pros and cons of remortgaging useful.

If the timing’s right, your new deal starts before your old one ends, taking you seamlessly from one lot of discounted mortgage payments to another. You can keep doing this until you get towards the end of your mortgage, when switching becomes less worthwhile and harder to do, as the minimum term for a new mortgage is usually five years and there will be a minimum amount you can borrow.

The best remortgaging deals

Here are the best five-year fixed-rate remortgage deals currently available throughout the UK. Mortgage selection based on data from Moneyfacts.co.uk on 3 February 2023. Total cost figures are for borrowing £150,000 over a 20-year term and are rounded to the nearest pound. 

Mortgages are subjective and other factors such as your borrowing history, income and credit score will affect what you’re offered. 

Best for borrowing up to 60% LTV 

First Direct – 3.99%

• Max LTV: 60%
• Product fee: £490
• Total cost over five years: £55,361

There are no valuation or legal fees to pay with this deal. As with most mortgages, early repayment charges apply until the end of the initial deal period, but you can overpay by unlimited amounts without charge. First Direct also offers a deal with no product fee but a higher interest rate of 4.14% so you’d end up paying £223 more over the deal period.

Barclays – 4.15%

• Max LTV: 60%
• Product fee: £0
• Total cost over five years: £55,632

This deal is £271 more expensive over the five-year fixed-rate deal period than the First Direct one above. There are no valuation or legal fees to pay. Early repayment charges apply in the first five years, which are 2% throughout the period of the deal, but you can make overpayments of up to 10% extra a year without charge.

Best for borrowing up to 80% LTV 

Yorkshire Building Society – 4.43%

• Max LTV: 80%
• Product fee: £495
• Total cost over five years: £57,374

As with the deals for borrowing up to 60% of the property’s value above, there are no valuation or legal fees to pay with this mortgage. It also gives you £250 cashback. Early repayment charges apply during the initial five-year period of 5% in the first year, reducing to 2% by the fifth year, but you can overpay by up to 10% a year without charge.

First Direct – 4.44%

• Max LTV: 80%
• Product fee: £490
• Total cost over five years: £57,417

This deal costs just £43 more over the five-year fixed-rate period than the Yorkshire Building Society one above. As with the Yorkshire deal, there are no valuation or legal fees to pay and there are early repayment charges in the first five years, starting at 3% in the first year and reducing to 2% in the fifth. You can overpay by unlimited amounts without charge.

Why should I remortgage?

People usually remortgage to save money when their initial deal ends and the savings can be huge. For example, if you were with Halifax paying its current standard variable rate (SVR) of 6.99% on a £150,000 mortgage with 20 years to go you would be paying £1,162 a month – a total of £69,720 over five years (assuming the rate stays the same over the five years – as it’s variable it could go up or down at any time).

But if you switched to the best five-year fixed-rate deal from First Direct above at 4.39% you would be paying £940 a month and it would cost you £57,275 over five years – a saving of £12,445.

How can I get the best remortgage deal?

Lenders offer a different set of deals for remortgages than for first-time buyers or moving home, although some may be available to all borrowers.

To find the best deal for you it’s a good idea to speak to a mortgage broker (find one on unbiased or vouchedfor) as they will be able to look at the whole available market. They will also have access to deals that aren’t available directly from lenders. Alternatively, you can use comparison sites, like Moneysupermarket, Uswitch, or our sister site GoCompare.

When you’re comparing deals you should look at the total cost over the deal period, which will include the cost of the fees involved, rather than just the initial rate. 

The smaller the proportion of the property’s value you’re borrowing (known as the loan-to-value or LTV) the lower the rate you’ll pay.