Warnings have been issued for over a year to prepare for higher interest rates. It has been a bit of confusion for most homeowners as rates from lenders rose, fell, stuck and are now climbing again. It was the end of 2021 when the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) began increasing the standard base interest rate following historic lows due to the global pandemic. The first increase of thirteen consecutive MPC meetings that resulted in rate hikes took the base rate from almost zero at 0.1% to 0.25%. Now, a year and a half later, the base rate is at 5.0% after the June meeting hike of 0.5%.

The UK could be about to experience record temperature highs in the coming days. This summer has the makings of a record breaker overall as June recorded the highest average ever and July looks to be a repeat of scorching heat making relief hard to find. Homeowners are likely looking for ways to make their home more comfortable, and the means of doing so could be as simple as getting a remortgage. Not only could a remortgage bring the means of upgrading a home to better handle the heat, but also to battle the cold of winter and perhaps saving money overall.

Losing home buyers from the housing market would do more than just harm the goals of property sellers. The economy is strongly dependent on the UK housing market, and on a more personal level, so are homeowners, but not because they have become home sellers. Homeowners depend on their property values to obtain access to remortgaging. The better their ratio of loan to value, the less risk of the lender and the better remortgage deals available to the homeowner. Unfortunately, the forecast is for the current interest rates to keep homeowners away from the housing market, but according to Nationwide they are leaving slowly, if at all.

There is no doubt that a remortgage could be quite helpful to a homeowner in the current economic environment. This is especially so for those homeowners coming to the end of their mortgage term. Without a remortgage, they will be moved to their lender’s standard variable rate (SVR) and that interest rate could be double or more the level offered with a remortgage. Also, a SVR would put the homeowner at risk of rising rates while a fixed rate remortgage could shield the homeowner from any further rate hikes, and there are certainly more rate hikes expected in the months ahead.

There are many reasons homeowners should be considering a remortgage. One of course is to save money. Another is to secure a fixed rate and escape future rate hikes. Some homeowners could be considering an equity cash release while others could be considering a new deal to get peace of mind from higher rates or secure a deal before house prices possibly decline. Now that the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has increased the standard base interest rate for the thirteenth consecutive time, remortgaging should be a consideration for all homeowners.

On Thursday, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met, and the result was the thirteenth consecutive meeting in which a rate increase occurred. It was not only another increase, but a larger one than what some experts had forecasted. The rate was moved by a 0.5% increase to 5.0%. Much of the reasoning behind the larger than expected rate increase is due to there not being a meeting in July in which the MPC could react to inflation. It has remained stubbornly high and despite the recent rate hikes, inflation remained steady from April to May.