House prices within the UK housing market are still rising, just not at such a stellar pace as before, according to the latest economic figures. Nationwide figures indicate house prices grew at just over 2% from the beginning of this year through Q2. This is the slowest year on year growth in a five year period. Compared to Q1, house prices only saw growth of 0.42%. London experienced the lowest amount of house price growth compared to all other regions. The market is expected to follow this trend through the rest of this year.

The summer of 2018 within the UK housing market will go down as one which saw major activity from several sectors. After the standard base rate increase in the month of November 2017, heavy speculation quickly surfaced that there would be another rate hike in the month of May this year. It was not voted into reality and another rate rise did not occur until August of this summer. All the talk of rate hikes sent house owners scrambling to the nearest lender to remortgage. July became the most remortgage active month in a decade.

A recently released report on remortgaging revealed that a large number of homeowners took advantage of seeking a deal before the August meeting of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). There had been warnings that the MPC could increase the rate, and as expected during the MPC meeting there was a majority vote to increase the rate by 0.25% which took the standard base rate to 0.75%. In consideration that this would mean the rate was three times the level seen during August 2017, it is no surprise that many sought to secure a low interest rate before the risk of an increase and it turns out that was a smart choice.

The Bank of England increased the standard base rate last month in a move by the Monetary Policy Committee which was well known and hinted on for weeks prior to the official meeting and vote. This created a mass wave of remortgage activity during the month prior to last month. Home owners were offered low interest fixed rate remortgage deals which they eagerly took advantage of. This resulted in many property owners immediately saving money and sidestepping an increase which would have raised their monthly mortgage payment. Now, talk from the Bank of England is hinting at another increase revolving around Brexit.

It is no surprise that data being released is showing that homeowners were keen to remortgage and avoid higher interest rate costs prior to the rate hike by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Warnings had started to grow louder that the MPC would increase the rate, even while some doubted it would be that soon. In the August meeting, the rate rose by 0.25% which took the standard base rate to 0.75%. That is three times the amount of the rate at the same time last year.

Remortgage activity within the UK housing market this summer was ablaze and new figures released recently confirm this. Home owners got out and turned around their financial future in big ways this summer, especially within the month of July. The latest data from UK Finance indicates a strong month of remortgage took place prior to the latest increase in the standard base rate which took place in August of this year. In fact, the month of July saw more home owner remortgage activity take place than any other month in the last decade.