June 3, 2008 | posted by Pam Atherton in Banking, Mortgages |

Despite the recent cutin base rate, lenders continue to hike mortgage rates, due to the cost of inter-bank borrowing which remains stubbornly high.Nationwide building society is today increasing the price of its fixed rate mortgage deals by up to 0.3 per cent.The hike follows Nationwide’s recent announcement that it would be scaling back lending this year and that fixed rate deals would change frequently, reflecting market volatility.From today, new two and three year fixed rate deals will rise by 0.3 per cent, meaning that a borrower with a 10 per cent deposit will pay interest at 6.45 per cent.Abbey last week raised rates on its new fixed-rate deals by between 0.15 per cent and 0.56 per cent. Woolwich, the mortgage arm of Barclays, also put up the cost of mortgages sold through brokers by up to 0.3 per cent last week. A survey shows that the average mortgage deal is now on offer for just 11 days before being withdrawn - down from 30 days a year ago. Brokers say that Abbey has been offering some of the more competitive rates recently for homebuyers with a 25 per cent deposit. Abbey blamed rising inter-bank borrowing rates, known as swaps, for the recent rises.