The Bank of England hikes its base rate to a new 15-year high of 5.25% this becomes the 14th consecutive rise and the highest level since Feb 2008.
It is interesting to note that today’s rate rise of 0.25% is lower than the 0.5% increase in June.
This coincides with positive news announced early in the week by the Bank of England who confirmed UK mortgage approvals were up, with banks and building societies approving 54,662 mortgages in June, the most since October 2022.
We will continue to monitor market reactions, particularly as more lenders have been lowering their rates in recent weeks with NatWest, Halifax, Santander and Virgin Money announcing that they’d make reductions to rates on some of their products this week.
Many economists now believe an end to the cycle of interest rate hikes with predictions the base rate will peak as low as 5.5% later this year.
