The housing market is showing slight declines leading up to the election. This is an expected trend and therefore few experts are concerned. According to house indices from Halifax and Nationwide, which base their respective index data on mortgage approvals, there was a 0.3% and 0.1% decrease in house prices for February. The latest data report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports house prices declined by 0.2% between December last year and January 2015. This would mark the first monthly decline since March 2014.

The ONS report bases their house price index on data collected on mortgage completions versus mortgage approvals.

The report revealed the annual house price inflation for January had declined by 8.4%. That marked a decline from the annual report of December reported at 9.8%. Some of the UK total decline can be marked by the latest house price slowing in London. The annual house price inflation within the capital was reported at 13% for the first month of the year. In May of last year, at the peak, house price inflation in London was at 20.1%.

There is indication that there will be an upcoming boost to the housing market. Rightmove, the online property lister, has reported that there was a jump in the interest shown online for properties, especially by first time buyers. Continued low interest rate mortgages by lenders are expected to combine with new government incentives to help first time buyers into homes to bring them back to the housing market.

When first time buyers show up to the market, the entire property ladder sees movement. Starter homes are sold and that allows homeowners seeking to move into upgraded properties of larger size to do so, and so on. It also allows for buyers to show up for those seeking to downsize.

Homeowners considering a remortgage should pay close attention to the housing market as once demand increases for mortgage lending the low interest rates currently offered will start to disappear. Lenders will no longer feel they have to be competitive for borrowers, and that means the cheap remortgage deals will disappear, probably for good this time.