Mortgage transactions have fallen in every council area since interest rates began to rise last December.
According to research by Octane Capital, mortgage transactions were a third lower between August – November 2021 and December 2021 – March 2022, falling from a monthly average of 55,070 to 37,019.
The North East has seen the largest reduction in mortgage market activity from homebuyers, with mortgage fuelled purchases down -39%, followed by the East Midlands (-36%).
The average monthly number of homes purchased with the help of a mortgage has declined across every single local authority since the Bank of England first increased interest rates.
Teignbridge, Newark and Sherwood and Tewkesbury have seen a -49% decline in market activity coming via mortgage funded homebuyers. Runnymede, North Norfolk, South Holland and Allerdale also make the top 10 with a -47% drop, as do Bolsover (-46%) and Peterborough (-46%).
Clackmannanshire has seen the smallest decline at -2%, with South Ayrshire (-11%), Inverclyde (-13%), Merthyr Tydfil (-15%) and the London Borough of Hackney (-15%) also amongst the most marginal drops.
‘Following the Bank of England’s decision to first increase interest rates in December of last year, there was an almost immediate retraction in market activity coming via the mortgage sector. We now know that this was just the tip of the iceberg with respect to increasing interest rates and this latest insight into declining mortgage sales volumes doesn’t yet account for the base rate hikes seen in May, June or August. So we expect the decline in market activity coming from mortgage backed homebuyers to be significantly lower still when these figures are finally released,’ says Jonathan Samuels, Octane Capital ceo.