“Housing downturns start slowly, and then they speed up.

But actually this is almost the most dangerous part of the process,” says Neal Hudson, of BuiltPlace analysts.

“We are at the stage where a lot of people will be thinking, oh that’s it, the risks are kind of gone.

On the surface, this looks like good news for the housing market. Recent turmoil in financial markets has also triggered a drop in swap rates, another gauge for future borrowing costs. The UK is certainly close to a peak in rates. This is because lenders price fixed-rate deals based on expectations of future borrowing costs: it is now feasible that Thursday's interest rate rise may have been the Bank’s last. Just hours after the Bank of England announced a 0.25 percentage point increase in the base rate, Nationwide Building Society said it will cut some of its fixed-rate deals by up to 0.45 percentage points.Īs of Friday, the lender will offer a five-year fixed rate at 3.94pc – the lowest on the market – for borrowers remortgaging with a 40pc deposit.

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