Almost 700,000 homeowners face increase when fixed-rate deals end this year

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Almost 700,000 homeowners are facing an increase in mortgage costs when their fixed-rate deals end this year, as a sell-off in the UK government debt market threatens to push up household borrowing costs.

Mortgage rates had been predicted to ease this year, as analysts projected multiple cuts to the Bank of England base interest rate, which was expected to feed into the lowering of mortgage rates for homeowners and buyers.