Product choice across the mortgage market has fallen to 6,842 options this month, cancelling out July’s rise in options, figures published by Moneyfacts have shown.

The number of options remains up year-on-year against 6,657 products in August 2024.

Moneyfacts’ latest UK Mortgage Trends Treasury Report revealed that the average shelf life of a mortgage product has increased to 17 days in August, up from 16 days last month. Two years ago, this figure stood at 13 days.

In terms of mortgage rates, the average two and five-year fixed rates fell by 0.08% and 0.07% to 5.01% and 5.01%, respectively, both slightly higher margins than the previous month.

“Lenders had mixed attitudes to pricing during July, and the churn of products resulted in a dip in choice, cancelling out the previous month’s rise,” said finance expert at Moneyfacts, Rachel Springall.

“As it stands, lenders may well consider a more low and slow approach to making cuts over the next few weeks, because of the knife-edge base rate decision last week which led to a rise in swap rates. Piling onto this, the markets could react badly to any significant decisions made in the Autumn Budget, an event which can be a blessing or a curse for future rate setting.

“If inflation gets out of control or economic uncertainties spike, borrowers can forget about more base rate cuts by the Bank of England this year.”

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