Barclays is extending its new two-year tracker at 0.79% over BBBR for house purchases following high demand for it in the remortgage market.

From tomorrow (16 December), Barclays is also introducing a new two-year fixed rate deal at 1.77% at up to 70% LTV – for remortgage only.

Each of these new mortgage products comes with a £999 application fee.

Barclays is also extending the end dates for all residential and buy-to-let fixed rate products by three months.

In response to the Autumn Statement’s Stamp Duty changes, Barclays is currently waiving the £150 product switching fee for pipeline transactions substituting products between now and the end of January 2015. Those who are currently in the homebuying chain may want to consider revisiting their mortgage arrangements – Barclays says that using the savings brought about by the Stamp Duty changes to reduce the mortgage amount could lead to considerable longer term savings, especially if a lower LTV bracket is achieved.

Andy Gray, managing director of Mortgages for Barclays, said: “Christmas can often be an expensive time of year and the changes we are making are designed to help customers save money, whether they are homebuyers or homemovers.

“Introducing these new rates and waiving the £150 product switching fee will benefit our customers and may help to ease the financial burden involved in buying and moving house.”