Homeowners looking for a competitive mortgage in the increasingly shrinking pool of good deals available may want to look at what HSBC has to offer.

The bank has extended its popular Rate Matcher mortgage deal by six weeks to 29 June. The deal is available to all UK homeowners whose fixed-rate mortgage period ends before 31 August.

Extending Rate Matcher means that more borrowers facing the shock of potentially higher repayments at the end of their fixed-rate mortgage period can now match their old rate by switching to HSBC.

Since 14 April, when Rate Matcher became available to both new and existing HSBC customers, HSBC mortgage sales have increased almost fourfold on April 2007 and averaged in excess of £100 million of new mortgages sold every day.

HSBC, head of mortgages, Martijn van der Heijden, said; "Importantly, the increase in business has not been at the expense of quality. We have maintained our conservative credit scoring, and have seen the average mortgage equal just 56 per cent of the property it was secured against."

Rate Matcher has been designed to help homeowners stabilise their future mortgage commitments by matching two-year fixed rates as low as 4.54 per cent for a further two years. Lending is limited to 80 per cent LTV and to a maximum of £250,000.

Customers with loans larger than £250,000 can still make use of their Rate Matcher 'allowance and top up with another HSBC mortgage for the rest of their required funds.

Figures compiled by personal finance website MoneyFacts and carried in the Daily Telegraph show that the average rate for a two-year loan has hit 6.64 per cent, up from 4.34 per cent two years ago.

It means that someone coming to the end of a mortgage on a £150,000 house they took out in 2005, will see their average repayments spike by £206 a month to £1,025.

It is estimated that around 1.4 million homeowners will see their fixed deals expire this year.

MoneyFacts' figures show that someone taking a typical five-year deal in 2003 on a £250,000 home loan will have to stump up almost £500 more when it comes to their new deal. Typical fixed rates are the highest since 2000, the Daily Telegraph reported.

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