Mortgage rates are on the rise again. The average deal is now 5.57%, up from 5.43% on 14 July, according to Moneyfacts data. With borrowers battling more expensive mortgages, which lenders consistently offer the best deals?
Our unique monthly rates analysis can help you narrow down your search. We crunch the numbers on 28 mortgage scenarios, based on typical loan amounts, term lengths and mortgage products, to reveal the lenders to watch out for.
In July, we found that one lender narrowly beat the competition. First Direct topped our table to be crowned the cheapest mortgage lender of the month. For the typical borrower, the provider was £136 a year cheaper than the next best providers.
But our research enables us to go further and look more closely at the cheapest lenders for different types of borrowers, including first-time buyers, remortgagers and home movers. Read on to find the lenders to look into based on your circumstances.
Trusted reviews
The links in our tables take you to the Which? review of the mortgage lender, where you can find out more about how it performed in our customer satisfaction survey and the latest mortgage rates the provider offers (updated daily).
Cheapest lenders for first-time buyers
In July, two major lenders topped our first-time buyer table (Lloyds and First Direct), although a number of smaller providers narrowly missed out on offering the cheapest deals.
West Brom Building Society and Beverley Building Society, along with Barclays, Halifax and HSBC, all achieved the second highest score.
Beverley Building Society is a smaller provider that often features among the cheapest lenders for first-time buyers. However, its deals are only available to applicants within a 50-mile radius of Beverley, Yorkshire.
West Brom Building Society has been operating for more than 175 years and has over 20 branches around Birmingham and the West Midlands. We aren't surprised to see the building society perform well in our analysis, as its deals consistently feature in our first-time buyer best-rate tables.
These results highlight the importance of shopping around for the best deal when buying your first home. You could find that a lender you hadn't heard of offers the cheapest deal.
Table notes: First-time buyer score based on Which? analysis of July 2026 Moneyfacts mortgage data. Table ordered by first-time buyer score, which may have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Customer scores are based on a survey of 5,016 members of the public in August-September 2025 and combine overall satisfaction with likelihood to recommend the provider. Sample size in brackets. The average customer score is 74%. n/a means a lender did not receive enough responses to generate a customer score or it was not included in our research due to having a small market share. To become a Which? Recommended Provider, a lender must get a top customer score, consistently offer competitive deals and be fully covered by the Financial Conduct Authority banking standards regime.
Cheapest lenders for home movers
Home movers were spoilt for choice in July, with five lenders all offering competitive deals.
For the typical home mover, these major lenders were on average £151 a year cheaper than the next cheapest lenders Halifax and HSBC.
Our research continues to show that the largest lenders often offer the cheapest deals for typical home movers.
Table notes: Home mover score based on Which? analysis of July 2026 Moneyfacts mortgage data. Table ordered by home mover score, which may have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Customer scores are based on a survey of 5,016 members of the public in August-September 2025 and combine overall satisfaction with likelihood to recommend the provider. Sample size in brackets. The average customer score is 74%. To become a Which? Recommended Provider, a lender must get a top customer score, consistently offer competitive deals and be fully covered by the Financial Conduct Authority banking standards regime.
Cheapest lenders for remortgaging
First Direct and HSBC were the cheapest lenders for those remortgaging in July. Close behind were Barclays, Santander and the Bank of Ireland UK.
On average, our analysis found that the table-topping lenders were £133 a year cheaper than the providers with the next best score.
We regularly see the Bank of Ireland feature in our best rate tables, but be aware that the provider finished bottom of the table in our latest customer satisfaction survey. To find out more, check out our Bank of Ireland lender review, featuring feedback from real customers.
Table notes: Remortgage score based on Which? analysis of July 2026 Moneyfacts mortgage data. Table ordered by remortgage score, which may have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Customer scores are based on a survey of 5,016 members of the public in August-September 2025 and combine overall satisfaction with likelihood to recommend the provider. Sample size in brackets. The average customer score is 74%. To become a Which? Recommended Provider, a lender must get a top customer score, consistently offer competitive deals and be fully covered by the Financial Conduct Authority banking standards regime.
Which lender should you choose?
With so many lenders to choose from, shopping around for a mortgage deal can be overwhelming. Our research can help you narrow your search and find providers likely to offer competitive deals for your situation.
You can find out how each of the 62 lenders scored overall for competitive mortgage deals – as well as more specifically for first-time-buyer, home mover and remortgage deals – using our table.
A score of 100% represents a market-leading mortgage deal based on our typical borrower scenarios. A one-point difference in the overall score equates to a saving of around £136 a year for the typical borrower.
Table notes: Overall score, first-time buyer score, home mover score and remortgage score based on Which? analysis of July 2026 Moneyfacts mortgage data. Table ordered by overall score, which may have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Customer scores are based on a survey of 5,016 members of the public in August-September 2025 and combine overall satisfaction with likelihood to recommend the provider. Sample size in brackets. The average customer score is 74%. To become a Which? Recommended Provider, a lender must get a top customer score, consistently offer competitive deals and be fully covered by the Financial Conduct Authority banking standards regime. n/a means a lender did not receive enough responses to generate a customer score or it was not included in our research due to having a small market share.
About our research
In our analysis, we use Moneyfacts mortgage data collected weekly on each Monday of the month.
To determine the cheapest lender of the month, we combine results across all three borrower types: first-time buyers, home movers and remortgagers. A lender can only be named overall cheapest if it offers at least one of the most popular mortgage products across all three borrower types.
We've used market data to identify the most popular mortgage types and include them in our research. Lenders are not penalised for not offering a particular type of mortgage.
To score providers, we create a typical borrowing scenario using market data, including loan amounts and term lengths. We factor in the interest rate and any initial fees to calculate the monthly cost. Each lender’s best deal is then compared with the cheapest product available for that scenario.
