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Sam covers personal finance topics, from the best savings rates to the reasons mortgage lenders say no. He enjoys crunching the numbers to help consumers get ahead.
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Lloyds Bank is the cheapest lender for the third month in a row, but this time it shares the crown with another provider, Nationwide Building Society, according to the latest Which? analysis.
April has been a mixed month for borrowers, with rate hikes dominating the beginning of the month and cuts in the second half. The best rates are now lower than those seen at the start of April, but more expensive than February's best deals.
Our research uses Moneyfacts mortgage data collected throughout March to compare the best deals across 24 different mortgage scenarios. A score of 100% represents a market-leading mortgage deal based on our typical borrower scenarios.
Nationwide and Lloyds received an overall score of 97%, indicating they offered excellent mortgage deals for a range of borrowers. However, other lenders may be more cost-effective depending on your situation.
Read on to find out which other lenders consistently offered competitive deals and see the top five cheapest providers for first-time buyers, home movers and remortgagers.
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Nationwide Building Society and Lloyds Bank were the cheapest lenders overall in April. Two lenders topping the table show how highly competitive the mortgage market is currently.
Nationwide is also the only Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) for mortgages in 2026.
For the typical borrower, the providers were £150 a year cheaper than the next best lender, Santander, which achieved an overall score of 96%.
Our analysis reveals that some lenders have slipped down the rankings following rate rises. For example, in February HSBC had the joint-second-highest overall score of 97%. However, in April and March it scored 91%. This means that in April, for a typical borrower, it was £900 more expensive per year than the cheapest lenders.
Note: the links take you to our lender review pages, where you can find their latest rates for first-time buyers, home movers and remortgagers.
RECOMMENDED PROVIDER | 80% | 97% |
Lloyds Bank (327) | 74% | 97% |
Santander (429) | 73% | 96% |
| 74% | 95% | |
Bank of Ireland UK (54) | 67% | 95% |
Table notes: Overall score based on Which? analysis of April 2026 Moneyfacts mortgage data. 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.
Our research enables us to look more closely at the cheapest lenders for different types of borrowers, including first-time buyers.
Lloyds Bank was also the cheapest for first-time buyers.
For a typical first-time buyer, Lloyds was almost £300 cheaper per year than the next-best lenders.
First-time buyers are the riskiest borrowers for lenders, as they typically have smaller deposits and usually need to take out larger loans. So you sometimes see a variety of smaller lenders in the table. In April, for example, Leeds Building Society was among the cheapest lender for this group of borrowers.
Note: the links take you to our lender review pages, where you can find their latest rates for first-time buyers, home movers and remortgagers.
Lloyds Bank (327) | 74% | 96% |
Barclays Mortgage (880) | 75% | 94% |
Halifax (744) | 72% | 94% |
| 68% | 94% | |
Santander (429) | 73% | 94% |
Table notes: First-time buyer score based on Which? analysis of April 2026 Moneyfacts mortgage data. 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.
Nationwide was a cut above the rest in the home mover category, with an impressive 99% score.
For the typical home mover, they were over £156 per year cheaper than Lloyds Bank.
We continue to find that the largest lenders offer the typical home mover the cheapest deals.
Note: the links take you to our lender review pages, where you can find their latest rates for first-time buyers, home movers and remortgagers.
RECOMMENDED PROVIDER | 80% | 99% |
Lloyds Bank (327) | 74% | 98% |
Halifax (744) | 72% | 96% |
Santander (429) | 73% | 96% |
| 74% | 96% |
Table notes: Home mover score based on Which? analysis of April 2026 Moneyfacts mortgage data. 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.
We found the most intense competition between lenders was for remortgaging deals.
Nationwide topped the table with a very impressive score of 99%, but three other lenders weren't far behind, achieving 98% in our analysis.
This is good news for borrowers, as even during market turmoil multiple lenders offer close to the best deals. With several lenders offering strong deals, you can choose one that suits your preferences.
Note: the links take you to our lender review pages, where you can find their latest rates for first-time buyers, home movers and remortgagers.
RECOMMENDED PROVIDER | 80% | 99% |
NatWest (529) | 73% | 98% |
Santander (429) | 73% | 98% |
| 74% | 98% | |
Bank of Ireland UK (54) | 67% | 97% |
Table notes: Remortgage score based on Which? analysis of April 2026 Moneyfacts mortgage data. 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.
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 50 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 £150 per year for the typical borrower.
Note: the links take you to our lender review pages, where you can find their latest rates for first-time buyers, home movers and remortgagers.
RECOMMENDED PROVIDER | 80% | 97% | 93% | 99% | 99% |
Lloyds Bank (327) | 74% | 97% | 96% | 98% | 94% |
Santander (429) | 73% | 96% | 94% | 96% | 98% |
| 74% | 95% | 90% | 96% | 98% | |
Bank of Ireland UK (54) | 67% | 95% | 93% | 94% | 97% |
NatWest (529) | 73% | 94% | 91% | 94% | 98% |
| 80% | 94% | 93% | 94% | 95% | |
First Direct (81) | 73% | 94% | 93% | 93% | 94% |
Halifax (744) | 72% | 94% | 94% | 96% | 92% |
| 68% | 93% | 91% | 93% | 96% | |
Barclays Mortgage (880) | 75% | 93% | 94% | 92% | 94% |
Scottish Building Society | n/a | 92% | 89% | 91% | 95% |
Virgin Money (68) | 74% | 91% | 90% | 93% | n/a |
HSBC (454) | 73% | 91% | 88% | 92% | 94% |
Accord Mortgages (86) | 78% | 88% | 85% | 91% | n/a |
West Brom Building Society | n/a | 88% | 88% | n/a | n/a |
| 68% | 88% | 84% | 84% | ||
TSB (94) | 74% | 87% | 84% | 88% | 89% |
Leek Building Society | n/a | 87% | 89% | 85% | n/a |
Newcastle Building Society | n/a | 86% | 86% | n/a | n/a |
| 80% | 84% | 78% | n/a | n/a | |
Perenna | n/a | 84% | 84% | 84% | 82% |
April Mortgages | n/a | 83% | 86% | 84% | 79% |
Loughborough Building Society | n/a | 83% | 83% | n/a | n/a |
Nottingham Building Society | n/a | 83% | 80% | 82% | 86% |
Tipton & Coseley Building Society | n/a | 82% | 82% | n/a | n/a |
Bath Building Society | n/a | 82% | 82% | n/a | n/a |
Atom Bank | n/a | 81% | 86% | 77% | 78% |
Cambridge Building Society | n/a | 80% | 80% | n/a | n/a |
United Trust Bank | n/a | 79% | 72% | 86% | n/a |
Family Building Society | n/a | 78% | 79% | n/a | n/a |
Vernon Building Society | n/a | 78% | 80% | 76% | 77% |
Melton Building Society | n/a | 78% | 89% | 66% | n/a |
Darlington Building Society | n/a | 77% | 76% | n/a | n/a |
Gen H | n/a | 77% | 68% | 79% | 83% |
Kensington | n/a | 74% | 68% | 78% | n/a |
Harpenden Building Society | n/a | 73% | 72% | 74% | n/a |
LiveMore Capital | n/a | 72% | n/a | 71% | 72% |
The Mortgage Lender | n/a | 67% | 64% | 70% | n/a |
Precise | n/a | 67% | 63% | n/a | n/a |
LendInvest Mortgages | n/a | 67% | 60% | 74% | n/a |
Pepper Money | n/a | 67% | 60% | 73% | n/a |
Hodge | n/a | 65% | 60% | 65% | 69% |
Metro Bank | n/a | 63% | 68% | 56% | n/a |
Aldermore | n/a | 61% | 58% | 65% | n/a |
Bluestone Mortgages | n/a | 61% | 55% | 66% | n/a |
Foundation | n/a | 59% | 56% | 62% | n/a |
Gatehouse Bank | n/a | 56% | 56% | n/a | n/a |
West One | n/a | 52% | 46% | 58% | n/a |
Together | n/a | 34% | n/a | 34% | n/a |
Table notes: Overall score, first-time buyer score, home mover score and remortgage score based on Which? analysis of April 2026 Moneyfacts mortgage data. 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.
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 borrowers.
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.
