Looking for a mortgage can be overwhelming, but our new mortgage research can help you cut through the noise.
We’ve asked more than 5,000 members of the general public about their satisfaction with their mortgage provider and combined this with analysis of mortgage data to help borrowers confidently shop around.
Read on to discover how customer satisfaction differs between banks and building societies, which lenders are the most competitive on rates, and our Which? Recommended Provider for mortgages this year.
Banks vs building societies: what do customers think of the service?
Our latest customer satisfaction survey of more than 5,000 mortgage customers found that building societies have the happiest customers.
Nationwide Building Society, Principality Building Society and Skipton Building Society all topped the table, with an impressive customer score of 80%.
Among the big banks, Barclays was the standout performer. It placed fifth in our table, with a customer score of 75%.
Generally, we found that borrowers are satisfied with their mortgage provider; the lowest customer score is 67% for the Bank of Ireland UK, which is still a respectable result. Â
Which lenders offer the most competitive interest rates?
We know that the most important factor for mortgage borrowers is the interest rate.
That’s why we don’t just use the customer score when thinking about the provider we will recommend, but also check which lenders offer good deals.
To do this, we analysed thousands of mortgages, using Moneyfacts data, over eight weeks between August and September 2025 for 13 types of mortgage. We compiled a series of top 10 cheapest deals tables based on a variety of borrowing scenarios, and counted how many times each lender featured in a table, to identify the lenders that consistently offer competitive deals.
While we found building societies dominated the top of our customer satisfaction survey, our interest rate research revealed that the big banks have led the way on rates recently, with 8 banks in our top 10.
HSBC came top in our analysis, consistently providing a wide range of competitive mortgages, while Nationwide – one of only two building societies in our top 10 – came second. Â
| Lender | Average number of table appearances per week |
|---|---|
| HSBC | 10.9 |
| Nationwide Building Society | 10 |
| Santander | 10 |
| NatWest | 8.8 |
| Barclays | 9 |
| First Direct | 8.3 |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | 8.4 |
| Yorkshire Building Society | 7.5 |
| Halifax | 7 |
| Virgin Money | 5 |
The lenders to look out for when shopping around
Here are the lenders that offered competitive rates most consistently for first-time buyers, home movers and those remortgaging during our research:
| The most competitive lenders | |
|---|---|
| Buying your first home | 1. NatWest2. Royal Bank of Scotland3. HSBC4. First Direct 5. Nationwide Building Society |
| Moving home | 1. HSBC2. Santander 3. First Direct 4. Halifax5. Yorkshire Building Society |
| Remortgaging | 1. Santander2. NatWest3. Barclays 4. HSBC5. First Direct |
Table notes: Interest rate analysis conducted over eight weeks in August-September 2025. Data collected weekly from Moneyfacts.
The Which? Recommended Mortgage Provider of 2025
This year, only one lender met our thresholds for customer satisfaction and competitive interest rates: Nationwide Building Society.
Whether you are a first-time buyer, home mover or remortgager, we found that Nationwide Building Society consistently offers competitive mortgage rates, especially for first-time buyers.
To help first-time buyers, Nationwide also offers the Helping Hand mortgage. The lender will offer up to 33% larger loans with this mortgage than standard products, to help buyers tackle high house prices.
Currently, Nationwide doesn’t offer mortgages with lower rates for homes with high EPC ratings (A or B), but it does offer 0% additional borrowing for green home improvements. Be aware that the 0% rate only applies for the duration of your fixed-rate term.
How we analyse mortgage lenders
Which? is completely independent, and our research isn’t influenced by lenders.
Our customer scores and star ratings are created by responses to our customer satisfaction survey of 5,016 members of the general public, conducted in August/September 2025.
Each customer score reflects how satisfied customers are with their provider and how likely they would be to recommend it.
Our rate analysis covers 13 different mortgage scenarios and uses eight weeks of Moneyfacts data, so we can be confident when telling you the lenders that consistently offer competitive rates.
Lenders must receive a minimum of 40 responses to be included in our results. Customer score sample sizes: Nationwide Building Society (642), Principality Building Society (44), Skipton Building Society (53), Accord Mortgages (86), Barclays Mortgage (880), Clydesdale Bank (45), Lloyds Bank (327), TSB(94), Virgin Money(68), Yorkshire Building Society (51), Coventry Building Society (92) First direct (81), HSBC (454), NatWest (529), Santander (429), Atom Bank (48), Halifax (744), The Co-Operative (Platform) (49), Leeds Building Society (69), Royal Bank of Scotland (87) and Bank of Ireland (54).
Contact one of our highly experienced mortgage advisors today on 0121 500 6316 to discuss your mortgage needs.
