For the first time since late June, funding costs have moved in the borrower’s favour. GBP SONIA swaps fell across the curve this week: the five-year is back to roughly 4.2–4.3% depending on source, down ten to fifteen basis points from last week’s peak, with the two-year showing a similar move. That unwinds perhaps a third of the July rise — not a reversal of the trend so much as the market catching its breath — but after five straight weeks of drift upward, the direction change itself is the news.

Lender pricing has not followed. The five-year limited-company fixes on offer today are the ones reissued at the July peak, and nothing has been repriced down since. That is entirely normal: lenders pass rises through within days and pass falls through in their own time, if at all. But it does mean product rates are currently priced off a funding level that no longer holds. If swaps sit at these levels for another week or two, there is room for the sharper lenders to come back a notch, and the no-fee end of the range — the first thing withdrawn on the way up — is where any improvement would be most useful.

The broker-panel lists have meanwhile caught up with the July repricing, and they confirm the shape we described last week: the cheapest no-fee five-year options from June are gone, their replacements are dearer over the term of the fix, and most of what moved, moved up. One detail worth noting is that at least one no-fee five-year fix is still being listed at a rate matching the pre-reprice generation — whether it is genuinely live and available is a question for a broker rather than a webpage, but it suggests not every lender repriced the full distance.

What follows for anyone mid-transaction is mostly patience. An offer secured before the July move remains better than what is on the shelf today, so the case for holding it is unchanged. But the argument for a final rate check just before completion has strengthened: if this week’s swap move holds, the shelf may improve, and a product switch late in the process costs nothing but a phone call. The fee arithmetic is unchanged too — a no-fee product at a slightly higher rate still tends to beat a headline rate bought with a percentage fee, whichever way swaps are drifting.

Not advice - for our own record. This is an internal market note kept by BSL Property Ltd to track conditions relevant to our own property investments. It is general commentary only, not financial, mortgage, investment, tax or other professional advice, not a personal recommendation, and not a financial promotion or an offer of any product. Any rate levels mentioned are approximate, are our own summary of publicly reported market conditions, may be out of date, and are not quotes available to you. Always obtain advice from an FCA-authorised adviser before making any borrowing or investment decision. BSL Property Ltd is not authorised or regulated by the FCA.