The housing market has been performing impressively in the midst of a pandemic. It was expected that it would falter and negatively impact the UK economy. However, the pandemic actually motivated buyers to seek out a better pandemic lifestyle home. A home that offered room to work from home, study and learn, workout, and with a possible garden or nearby green spaces. Demand has been so impressive that the average UK house price has reached new high levels month after month.

As the average house price grew by 10.2% in the UK in the twelve months to March, the Bank of England took notice. The March average house price growth was the highest since August 2007. The Bank is now carefully monitoring the housing market boom during the start of pandemic recovery as it could lead to a sustained period of inflation. This in turn could lead to a need to increase the standard base interest rate.

Homeowners are still taking advantage of remortgaging opportunities. According to the latest information from LMS, completions in remortgage lending increased by 17% in April. The LMS Monthly Remortgage Snapshot report showed that demand in remortgaging continues with more than half of homeowners choosing a five year fixed rate deal. 

Remortgage brokers and lenders are competing for the attention of homeowners. That competitive environment puts more options and opportunities on the lending market for borrowers. In simply means that if you are a homeowner looking for the best remortgage, there are plenty of options and opportunities available. Therefore, if you haven’t found your long term, substantial savings, fixed rate deal yet, then you haven’t looked in the right place, because the odds are great it is out there.

Remortgage brokers have issued a positive sentiment on the remortgage market. This sentiment reflects the demand in the market for remortgages from homeowners that have been motivated to get a deal. Substantial savings are possible with a lower interest rate and there is also the opportunity to turn built up equity into cash. Brokers are revealing that the demand in the market has shown an uptick over the previous months when it appeared homeowners were more interested in moving home than staying put.

House prices have increased by the fastest annual rate since August 2014 according to the Nationwide Building Society. The dream of having a home to better suit the pandemic lifestyle has helped drive demand as well as the savings offered by the soon to end stamp duty holiday. The tax relief deadline is the end of June at which time there will be a discounted tax and then it will go back to normal levels at the end of September. There is not an expectation at this time that the stamp duty holiday will be extended as it was in March.