Borrowers can also access the lender’s standard mortgage range on Help to Buy which the lender said should make Nationwide the leading lender for the Help to Buy equity loan scheme.

Nationwide temporarily withdrew access of the equity loan scheme for home movers in July 2014, restricting access to first-time buyers to control business volumes after a similar move from Lloyds.

The mutual said: “Having taken time to assess developments in the equity loan market, Nationwide is now in a position to once again support home movers through the scheme.”

Help to Buy Equity Loan, the first government scheme targeted to help first-time buyers and homebuilders is available for properties in England up to a value of £600,000. The scheme is expected to remain in place until 2020.

As a result of the changes, shared equity applications will be available on both fee and fee-free products.

Meanwhile, Nationwide has dropped its booking fee for all new mortgages. Mortgage deals will be either fee-free, or come with a £999 product fee, with a discounted £499 fee for first time buyers.

Richard Napier, Nationwide’s divisional director of mortgages and savings, said: “These changes are very positive for our customers. Nationwide continues to offer shared equity customers access to our standard mortgage rates, rather than charging a premium like some other lenders. This demonstrates our ongoing commitment to this market, proving once again that we are on our customers’ side.”

Meanwhile, the Mortgage Works, Nationwide’s buy-to-let arm, has also reduced rates by up to 0.60% on buy to let and let to buy products.

New two, three and five year fixed and two year tracker products have been added to the 60 per cent LTV tier, with rates starting from 2.39%. Existing two year fixed rates have also been reduced by up to 0.60%. Also, selected products up to 75% LTV have been reduced by up to 0.50%.

The new range of rates is available to both buy to let and let to buy customers, and are available to both first time and experienced landlords.

Henry Jordan, managing director of The Mortgage Works, said: “Landlords are keen to access competitively-priced fixed rate deals, especially now that there is increasing discussion surrounding the possibility of an interest rate rise.”