UK property market continues its slump – and it’s impacting homes over £500,000
The Bank of England’s latest Money and Credit figures highlight the continued pressures on the housing market. The residual effects of stamp duty changes, combined with ongoing affordability issues and the typical summer slowdown, are still dampening activity.
Mortgage borrowing saw a sharp decline following the changes to stamp duty earlier this year, and it has been struggling since.
The figures show this trend has continued, as net borrowing of mortgage debt fell by £0.2 billion in August to £4.3 billion, following a £0.9 billion decrease to £4.5 billion in July.
Approvals for house purchases – a key forward-looking measure – fell by 500 in August to 64,700, while remortgaging activity also continued to decline, with approvals dropping by 900 to 37,900.
“Although a summer slowdown is typical, when combined with the other ongoing market pressures, including budget rumours, it could have wider implications for house prices,” said Ian Futcher, Financial Planner at Quilter.
“We are already seeing a dip in demand for homes over £500,000, for example. However, as we move further into the autumn and winter, the market will have had time to adjust to the stamp duty changes and more prospective buyers will have built up their savings enough to cover the higher tax bills, so we could see a gradual return of momentum,” he said.
The data shows consumer credit borrowing held steady at £1.7 billion in July, reflecting a slight decrease in credit card borrowing and a small uptick in other forms of consumer credit reliance.
“While it is positive that borrowing has not risen overall, interest rates are still elevated and the Bank of England’s base rate looks unlikely to fall further for a while yet, so this ongoing reliance on borrowing could be a cause for concern in terms of longer-term financial resilience,” said Futcher.
