Increasingly broken housing market - Comment on BoE Money and Credit stats from Katie Pender at Target Group - hope I'm not too late :)

30 October 2023

Katie Pender, managing director at Target Group, says “Mortgage approvals have been falling for some months now, but this is a significant drop, especially for remortgages. With so many people due to come off fixed rate deals before the end of the year the drop in remortgage approvals is a little surprising. The question is, are people just rolling onto SVR’s waiting to see what will happen with interest rates if inflation continues to fall?

“The UK housing market is in a state of flux and it is very likely that it will stay that way at least until the end of the year, and into 2024. However, lenders need to lend, and we have seen many lenders offering more favourable rates recently. Whether the current deals on offer will be enough to tempt people to buy, or even fix, remains to be seen. Confidence may be low but if the prime minister’s pledge to halve inflation before the end of the year comes true, we may see the market pick up earlier than many have predicted. What is certain is that this is the time for more government intervention into what is an increasingly broken housing market.”