Base rate hold provides ‘further relief for home buyers and sellers’

Housing market confidence could get a further boost from the continued freeze on the Bank of England base rate, it has been suggested.

The Bank of England held interest rates at 5.25% on Thursday.

Mortgage professionals said that while homeowners coming up to remortgage should still prepare themselves for a hike in their payments, the shock may not be as big as it could have been last year.

Matt Smith, Rightmove’s mortgage expert, said: “The market appears more robust than last year, evidenced by the fact that the surprise uptick in inflation a couple of weeks ago didn’t derail the downward trend of mortgage rates.”