Predicting the future can be a fool’s game at the best of times, but attempting to read the runes on the housing market seems a particularly brave thing to do after nearly two years of interest rate chaos that has sent household finances into their biggest downward spiral since 2008.
The rate on an average two-year fixed-rate mortgage has been catapulted upwards from 1.57 per cent in December 2021 to 6.26 per cent, while the average five-year fix has gone up from 1.59 per cent to 5.84 per cent, according to the data company Moneyfacts.
UK Finance, the banking body, says about 800,000 borrowers rolled off cheap fixed-rate deals in the second half of 2023 alone and about 1.6 million deals are due to expire
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