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Xmas cutting mortgage activity, expert claims
Tue, 12 Dec 2006
A combination of the arrival of Christmas and recent adjustments to the Bank of England's base rate has led borrowers to be more cautious in the mortgage market, according to one expert.

Borrowers are increasingly exercising caution when trying to find a mortgage, as the bank has elected to raise the base rate twice in recent months, states Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol.

The expert commented in the wake of figures from Rightmove, which indicated a 0.3 per cent fall in asking prices for property over the last month, with prices falling in seven out of ten regions.

"Having got a second rise in relatively short succession in November, that then does start to bite a bit more," he remarked.

"I suspect that it is a combination of a seasonal slowdown and people getting a bit more cautious after the second bank rate rise in three months."

However Milan Khatri, chief economist at the Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors , recently claimed that interest rate hikes would do little to dampen mortgage activity, as demand grows for larger, higher-quality homes .

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