The pendulum is swinging - Comment on the Bank of England's money & credit figures for July from Richard Pike at Phoebus Software

30 August 2022

Richard Pike, chief sales and marketing officer at Phoebus Software, says “The resilience of the housing market against the current economic backdrop is becoming par for the course, but how sustainable this is remains to be seen. Each month, when we expect there to be a drop in activity, the figures tell of buoyancy and continued appetite, albeit the pendulum swing from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market could start to bring prices down. As existing deals come up for renewal and also borrowers on variable rates look for the protection of being able to budget and therefore look to fix, re-mortgage activity will remain strong. Today’s figures do also show slightly more reliance on personal debt and one wonders how this trend will continue and what the longer term effect on areas such as affordability will look like because of this.

“Although mortgage arrears fell again in Q2, the likelihood is that this trend will change in the coming months as interest rate rises begin to have more of an effect and energy and other cost of living prices rise. Lenders may need to offer more generic debt and budgetary advice to their customers who are unable to get in front of MAS and similar agencies due to pure volume of enquiries. A pro-active approach in these unprecedented times for many is required.”