Record low interest rates, soaring house prices and our love affair for property (we all understand a house, don’t we?) have led to the current proliferation of private, some might cruelly say amateur, landlords. But now interest rates are moving to more ‘normal’ levels, selling a house that you thought was OK for someone else to rent but you’d never want to live in, might not be so easy; and tightening standards mean that more than a lick of paint and a tidy-up of the garden is likely to be needed to keep the show on the road. The crunch point will come when fixed rates end and suddenly rents don’t cover the monthly payment, hence Lloyds CEO’s call for more competitive mortgage options. Which will be needed sooner rather than later, I fear.
“UK house prices fall at sharpest rate for 14 years, says Nationwide”
As rehearsed many times, I’ve been a house price doom-monger for many a month. As with those who forever forecast a stock market crash, it was inevitable that I would eventually be right. Stopped clock syndrome and all that.
