Remortgage activity within the UK housing market has been increasing steadily over the past twelve to eighteen months. Home owner remortgage has become extremely popular as this group has been increasing demand for fixed rate products providing security against increases in interest rates in the future. Somewhat of a surprise to housing experts has been the increase which took place during the first quarter of this year in the buy to let sector. More than 50% of buy to let mortgage lending in Q1 was for landlords.

Experts had put out warnings that an increase in the interest rate by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was on the horizon. There was an expectation that the possibility of higher interest rates would push hopeful home buyers to take action and be aggressive to buy. However, the average house price for the month of May fell by 0.2% in May according to the data released by Nationwide.

Remortgage had a strong start to the year 2017 due to low interest rates, lender competition, and uncertainty created by the unexpected outcome of the Brexit vote. Home owners were looking for stability through a fixed rate remortgage which was readily available. Remortgage then surged again prior to the November increase to the standard base rate which saw the governing interest rate pushed up from 0.25% to 0.5%. Following that first week in November, remortgage stalled a bit. Now, according to housing experts, remortgage is back and is primed to grow.

Homeowners have the opportunity to take a deep breath and exhale slowly with news that experts believe a rise in interest rates pushed by the Bank of England’s action to hike the standard base interest rate has been delayed until later in the year. There had been an expectation that early summer would bring higher interest rates and that was set back to a possibility of happening during the August meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

The UK housing market is currently being described as subdued by many housing experts as home mortgage lending has fallen over the last few months and house prices are struggling in many areas of the country. Inflation has cooled off and with other economic factors regarding the economy, the Bank of England made an important decision during the last monthly meeting. A few weeks ago the central bank chose to leave the standard base rate at its current level of 0.5%. This was good news for those on the fence facing a decision within the housing market, but bad news for savers looking for better interest rate savings accounts.

The housing market has remained a seller’s market for years with multiple rounds of house price increases with few rounds of wage increases or breaks in the inflation of property costs. This, along with uncertainty hanging over the market since the Brexit vote, has made it difficult to make decisions on making a move with a property. However, with a recent cooldown in the market in regard to house price growth, it may be turning into a market which favors buyers instead of sellers.