Bank of England raises interest rates
The Bank of England has raised its base rate by 0.25% to 0.75%. This is as high as the base rate has been for 10 years and although interest rates are still incredibly low some younger borrowers might be more concerned about what effect this change in policy will have on their debt repayments.
There seems to be very little evidence that interest rates needed to rise at all so perhaps the real reason why Mark Carney has raised rates at this time is so he can cut them again to cushion the effect of the UK leaving the EU next year. Carney is relentlessly pessimistic about the UK economy and about our chances of thriving outside of the EU so he will want to hedge his bets and this perhaps explains his latest move. Carney has been wrong all along about how robust the UK economy has been since June 23rd 2016 but like most fans of globalisation he is not likely to change his view in a hurry.
As for the property market, I don’t think the rate rise will have much impact because money is still relatively cheap and most borrowers are on fixed rate deals so they won’t feel the pain for some time yet.