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Tracker mortgages have been relaunched by Lloyds TSB and its associated Cheltenham & Gloucester brand - but at a price.
Someone with a 40% deposit will pay a £1,995 fee and 3.69% - 2.69% above the base rate - for a three-year tracker deal.
This compares with the previous two-year tracker rate under the same terms of 2.29% above base, meaning 3.79% when the base rate was 1.5%.
Meanwhile, a 25% deposit will now see customers pay 2.99% above base, rising to 3.59% if they opt for the group's fee-free deal.
The bank has defended its decision to increase its margins on the grounds that Libor, the key inter-bank lending rate, has fallen very little since the Bank of England cut the base rate by 0.5% to 1%.
The group, which had withdrawn its trackers ahead of the Bank's announcement, has reintroduced them to keep its products in line with the rest of the market.
Lloyds has already said it is reducing its standard variable rate by the full 0.5%, amid pledges that the rate will never be more than 2% above the base rate.
Other lenders have been slower to respond, with only 14 groups out of 90 so far saying they will be passing on between 0.19% and 0.5% of the cut.
Meanwhile, housebuilders saw orders for private homes suffer their greatest slump in more than half a century last year, official figures showed.
In further dire news for the sector, new orders for private homes fell 43% in 2008 compared with the previous year - the worst drop since records began in 1958.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), orders for private homes for the year were also at their lowest level since records began.
The survey also showed the decline accelerating in the final three months of last year, with new orders for private homes down 57% compared with the same period in 2007.
On a monthly basis, orders plunged 43% from November to December - the biggest monthly fall since 1985.
ONS construction statistician Tony Crook said the data show a "drastic" situation in the sector.
"It is a big deal and that will find its way into our quarterly output in construction and of course output some time in the future will also start to fall," he added.
Overall construction orders fell 26% in the fourth quarter compared with the previous year and 16% during the year as a whole.
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