Rightmove reaction to Bank Rate hold

Matt Smith, Rightmove’s mortgages expert said: “Home-movers will have to wait a little longer for a third Bank Rate cut of the year, but today’s hold was widely anticipated. Despite the global uncertainty and turbulent events that we’ve had so far this year, the mortgage market has remained fairly stable. We’re broadly where the markets expected us to be at the start of the year in terms of inflation and rate cuts.

“Lenders have a bit of room to reduce rates further even with a hold in the Bank Rate today so home-movers can still be hopeful of some small mortgage rate cuts over the next couple of weeks. Average rates have been pretty flat in recent weeks, but we have seen increasing signs of competition amongst lenders as they have reduced their stress-testing criteria and with new mortgage products coming back to market, lenders are looking at ways to support more people get the home that they want.”