The housing market was expected to begin cooling off in July. It would be a slow decline back to a somewhat normal state, so said experts. However, it appears that demand could be gaining traction despite factors at play that were expected to slow down the buying frenzy from home buyers.

The stamp duty holiday deadline is nearing and will come to a close on 30 September. That means the tax savings to home buyers at property purchase levels of £250,000 or less will disappear. Many believed that the stamp duty holiday was the cause of the surge in demand on the housing market and without it the market will cool down, but that could be off the mark.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be meeting again towards the end of September on the 23rd. Only days later, the stamp duty holiday will come to an end on the 30th. Both of those events could very well impact the housing market. The big question is if the MPC meeting will result in interest rates increasing.

With interest rates at historic low levels, borrowing is cheap. So cheap in fact that it has been reported that some lenders are offering remortgage deals at less than 1%. It’s likely as close as we’ve seen to borrowing interest free. This is prompting homeowners to seek not only a remortgage with a lower interest rate to save money, but to borrow more with their deal. 

There is plenty of advice being passed around currently and most of it is gladly welcomed for those looking to borrow. The interest rates are astoundingly low and it would be quite difficult not to notice even if you weren’t planning to borrow. In some cases, the current low interest rate offers from lenders are their lowest ever in their history of lending. The most encouraged advice in borrowing could be that from experts encouraging homeowners not to lose out on savings by choosing to sit idle rather than remortgage.

The housing market has proven that people have changed their vision for a dream home. Before the pandemic most would have liked to buy a home in a major city for all of the opportunities and conveniences as well as culture, arts, and night life, but affording a home in those areas, especially in the capital would be difficult for most. However, the pandemic changed all of that with the country side getting more respect from home buyers and the city was shunned.