Recent data has revealed the largest identified demographic of buyers in the UK housing market is that of the first time buyer. In fact, first time buyers are expected to not only be the top group of home buyers in the UK for 2019, but in the next as well. This comes as the Help to Buy scheme closes and Brexit is still impacting buyers and sellers. The new buyers chose to disregard expected caution due to a slowing global economy and Brexit, and instead grabbed the opportunities present in today’s market of low interest rate mortgages and lower asking prices from property sellers.

According to data, there was a large number of homeowners that mortgaged two years ago and were due to have their mortgage term end this year in October. Awaiting that opportunity to gain new borrowers, remortgage lenders began putting out more remortgage products and with lower interest prices. However, not all of those homeowners have taken advantage of the opportunity to gain a low interest price with a remortgage. That means they could be paying more than necessary.

For almost the entire whole of 2019, consumers were making choices under the uncertainty cloud of Brexit. For most, investing into a large purchase, such as property, would be put off until there was a better understanding of what would happen, a no deal Brexit or not, and how the economy would handle the result. There were many that didn’t let the uncertainty sway their decision and instead made personal choices based on the opportunities available rather than heed the warnings of a possible doom and gloom scenario. The result for the year looks to show both resilience in the face of uncertainty, as well as caution from home buyers when historically low interest rates were offered and lower asking prices from home sellers.

The average UK house price grew in the month of November despite the economic uncertainty that remained due to Brexit. The average house price grew by 0.5% to £215,734 according to the most recent data released by Nationwide building society. While it may seem to be a slight level of growth, it is the largest monthly increase since July 2018 and followed 0.2%growth in October. Annual growth increased by 0.8% and was the largest annual growth since April 2019.

Congratulations if you are a homeowner that is considering a remortgage. It could possibly be the best time of the year to be shopping for a remortgage deal. Lenders are competitive and to gain the attention of borrowers, they are putting out interesting remortgage products and some are historically low. To make the most of the opportunity to save money, it could possibly mean that homeowners need to put loyalty aside and shop with many lenders before making a decision.

The low interest rates being offered by lenders are pulling in homeowners to remortgage. According to the latest data released by UK Finance, in October 37,769 homeowners remortgaged, which is 12.7% more than October of last year. In the month to month comparison, there was a 10.6% increase over the 34,157 that remortgaged in September. The value of remortgage approvals increased by 17.8% compared to October 2018 at a total of £7.3 billion.