Mortgage lenders have wasted no time in starting the New Year with a bang, with some announcing new mortgage deals in the first week of January.

First up is an extension of the £500 cashback offer from Lloyds Bank to first-time buyers and homemovers, adding to the existing deal to remortgagors. It’s open to those choosing a qualifying mortgage between now and the end of February. The cashback is paid on completion of the mortgage.

Andrew Mason, mortgages director at Lloyds Bank, said: “We are committed to providing good value through our mortgage offering, and this £500 cashback comes at a time of the year when we all know finances can be particularly stretched.”

Virgin Money has welcomed in the New Year with a new range of mortgage deals, including its ‘Stamp Duty Specials’ which come with no product fees and a whopping £1,500 cashback. The higher LTV products are designed to help first-time buyers with smaller deposits beat the cost of Stamp Duty and include a two-year fix up to 95% loan-to-value at 4.29%, and a five-year fix up to 95% loan-to-value at 4.79%

The lender has also reduced some of its other high loan-to-value mortgage deals by up to 0.31 percentage points, and chopped rates on its New Build, and Help to Buy deals.

Peter Rogerson, Virgin Money’s commercial director for mortgages said: “We are kick-starting the New Year with a refreshed mortgage range designed to help even more first-time buyers on to the property ladder with lower rates and cashback specials to assist with Stamp Duty payments. There are also rate reductions for Help to Buy customers.”

Finally Skipton has launched a range of brand new tracker mortgage deals up to 90% loan-to-value and has reduced rates on existing fixed mortgages.

Free valuations are offered on all new two- and five-year fixed and Base Rate tracker remortgage products, and rates start from 1.49%.