National Mortgage Index - August 2018

Sunshine sells houses as market remains resilient over summer

Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau comments:

“Despite one of the best summers we’ve had for over forty years – which in itself has been a pleasant distraction for many - coupled with the start of the school holidays, activity in the UK housing market continued to tick over nicely in July. Transaction levels, as reported by HMRC, although slightly lower than last year, maintained their momentum from June, and buyers were still out in force in many regions, as was evidenced by recorded house price growth from both the Halifax and Nationwide House Price Indices.

What’s reassuring to note from this month’s data is that, as we start the second half of 2018, the majority of key metrics remain broadly unchanged on the previous month, and indeed mainly unchanged on the same period last year. The only sector which has seen a softening in borrowing metrics is Buy To Let, with the impact of Section 24 being widely reported by the media and, in particular, noted in the most recent report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Elsewhere however, our data points to a settled market with key indicators in the First Time Buyer, Residential Purchase and Remortgage sectors all stable.
The only slight upwards movement is on the numbers of those who chose a fixed mortgage product in July, which given the media sentiment around the potential of an increase in the interest rate from the Bank of England in August, was to be expected.

That said, there is still regional variance in house price growth at play, and as has been the story for some time now, there is a perceptible softening of London and the South East, which was still apparent in July. Other regions, such as Scotland, Wales, the North and Midlands continue to see growth in key conurbations, which as previously reported has been the market dynamic for the past few months.

Overall then, one would suggest that there are still motivated buyers and sellers in the current environment, although asking prices need to remain realistic both in order to secure an offer, but also to avoid issues with any mortgage valuation. That aside, given the time of year and the current economic and political climate, one would suggest that the UK housing market is currently continuing to perform to expectations.”

Read the full report here.