The housing market only months ago was a cause of great concern as many experts were worried that the UK was facing a housing bubble.  Whether the market would self correct as buyers walked away from fast rising house prices was yet to be seen.  Apparently they did so according to a recent report the market has slowed. 

A survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) showed that demand from new buyers, an important group to the housing market, fell for the third month in a row in September.  London housing demand fell for the fifth consecutive month.

Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist with Rics, remarked, “Part of this is down to the Bank of England becoming more vocal about the risks, part of this is down to affordability, part of this is down to the new mortgage rules and part of this is down to expectations of higher interest rates.”

While house prices have cooled, remortgage demand has failed to thaw.  With warnings of an impending interest rate hike by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, it was expected that mortgage holders would seek to secure a low interest rate remortgage soon.  Yet, homeowners have stayed away.  This too, like the slowdown of the housing market, is being attributed to the Mortgage Market Review in some part.

It could be that those waiting on the sidelines will regret their lack of effort to seek a new remortgage or shop for a low rate mortgage.  Lately, lenders have brought out some of the lowest interest rate offers seen in years.  They are not expected to stay around long, so those that wait too long will in fact miss out and end up paying more.