OK, I know I am a little early with this but how did that happen?! It only felt like a few weeks ago it was Christmas.
I thought I would give a quick update on how we are finding the market, what we have heard about interest rates and a few other little bits that have cropped up over the last 6 months.
The housing Market
Its been a bit of a quirky year this year. There have been a lot of different factors that have played a part in how things have gone.
Trumps Tariffs – believe it or not, this has had quite a big effect on the rates. Im not sure why, but ultimately rates have been coming down since he has been playing poker with tariffs, although they do for the time being seemed to have bottomed out.
Stamp Duty holiday – The stamp duty holiday ended in March. I have to be honest in that at the beginning of the year, I expected to see an uptick in mortgages in January but then it start to drop drastically for the rest of the year. That did not really happen. January to March was maybe just slightly below a normal year. April was QUIET (very quiet!). But May and June have been very busy and it might not be our busiest May/June ever but it wont be far off – although we still have 3 weeks left so who knows.
The “end” of Right to Buy – The discounts on RTB ended (or massively reduced) in November. People had 6 months from then to complete the purchase if they wanted the full RTB discount. I expected to see an uptick in RTB applications in the early part of the year. That did happen but only marginally.
Transactions in general are holding strong despite the changes to stamp duty. We are certainly keeping busy.
Interest Rates
As mentioned earlier, thanks to Trumps Tariffs mortgage rates have been coming down. You can see a monthly report I write on mortgage rates here.
But since Trumps tariffs inFeb/March time some interest rates have come down by nearly half a percent. They were generally on a downward trend anyway, but they have come down much quicker since his announcements.
The expectation is that there will be a base rate drop later in the year and whilst mortgage rates are not necessarily tied to the Base rate, it can give an indication of what will happen.
Other bits
You might have read about affordability being relaxed, this is something we have seen in certain scenarios, although not for everyone. Whilst it is nice to be able to get a larger mortgage and in turn a nicer or bigger property, obviously that does need paying back. Its important to ensure you are only applying for what is comfortable rather than what you can get.
Summary
Its generally good news, which seems a bit odd as the last 3-5 years I am used to seeing only bad news or at the very least it being mixed. But as it stands… rates are down, business is up, criteria/affordability are becoming more relaxed.
Its all looking rosy at the moment!