Propertymark has called on the Bank of England to play its part in helping homeowners faced with higher mortgage costs by slashing interest rates as soon as practically possible.
The call follows the release of the latest statistics yesterday revealing that the number of mortgage arrears continues to rise.
According to UK Finance, approximately 93,680 homeowner mortgages were in arrears of 2.5% or more of the outstanding balance in the fourth quarter of 2023.
This represents a 7% rise in contrast to the previous quarter and 25% more than the fourth quarter of 2022.
Additionally, 30,750 mortgages were in the most alarming arrears band. This was a 4% jump in contrast to the previous quarter and 8% more compared with the corresponding period a year earlier.
Nathan Emerson, CEO at Propertymark, said: “If the Bank of England meets its own inflation target of two per cent earlier than they planned, then they should look to reduce interest rates as soon as they can. Mortgage affordability is a critical issue at the moment, and Propertymark’s own Housing Insight Report found that many agents are selling below the initial asking price for homes due to mortgages becoming increasingly expensive as a result of higher interest rates and inflation.
“Also, many landlords on variable or tracked rate mortgages are now struggling with rising mortgage costs and increased taxes against a backdrop of increasing legislation, ultimately making renting more expensive and forcing some landlords out of the sector completely.”
Why don’t you do something truly useful and develop a publishable strategy for planning and building reform?
These constant calls for demand side stimulus is just cheap noise.
The more entities, organisations, associations, NGO’s and quangos (and deluded individuals) call for demand style stimulus, the more out of touch they look.
Your calls, demands and plea’s are quite literally able to be rephrased as,
‘Please let’s inflate the housing bubble further. Let’s make longer term debt even more prevalent. Let’s continue to wilfully ignore the housing shortfall and supply imbalance’
And, more to the point,
‘we haven’t got a clue about the housing market, we just want more short term results because we’re not bright enough to a) develop a long term answer, nor b) think much further than 24 months ahead.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register