Halifax cuts mortgage rates again

The bank still wants a 20% share of the market for new loans

The UK's biggest mortgage lender, Halifax, is cutting some of its interest rates for new borrowers, for the third time this month.

The changes, which come into effect from Saturday, will cut the rates on 16 different deals by up to 0.3%.

Bank of Scotland, part of the same group, is also cutting the cost of 29 different mortgages.

Halifax said the reductions were a response to the recent flurry of rate cuts by other lenders.

"We are just pricing in line with the market," said a spokesman.

Some of the most popular sort of mortgages, those fixed for two years, are not being changed as their rates were cut last weekend.

But three and five-year fixed rates, and the bank's two-year tracker rate, are coming down by as much as 0.18%.

House sales have slumped by 50% in the past year and are heading lower with mortgage approvals currently down 67% on a year ago.

Halifax denied it was desperate for business and said it still aimed to account for 20% of the market.

It pointed out that it was not altering the size of the deposits it required from borrowers nor was it changing the up-front fees for each deal.