Natwest has become the latest lender to increase its mortgage rates, suggesting that the the home loan price war is over.

The high street bank has announced that most of its two year and five year fixed and tracker rate mortgage range will increase in price by 0.3% this week.

Significantly the rate on its flagship five year deal for borrowers making a purchase with a deposit of at least 40% will go back up above the 4% mark on Thursday, increasing from 3.79% to 4.09%.

The rate on the five year fix for borrowers with a 25% mortgage rise from 3.89% to 4.19%.

Some tracker rates are also going up with a two year deal for purchasers with a 40% deposit increasing from 5.61% to 5.91%.

Santander and TSB have also announced hikes in their fixed-rate mortgage deals, with increases of up to 0.3 percentage points.

The sudden about turn after months of falling rates comes amid a sharp rise in yields on gilts that are used to price fixed rate deals. The benchmark ten year gild was yesterday trading at about half a percentage point since mid-September.

The recent hike in mortgage rates is a blow for the property market which had finally started to gather momentum as home loan costs got cheaper, particularly as sub-4% money became increasingly widely available.

But the Bank of England is still expected to cut its headline lending rate from 5% to 4.75% when its Monetary Policy Committee meets next month.

Spooked mortgage lenders look set to increase rates ahead of Budget