House prices are steady or rising in many areas of the UK. However, as has been the case for more than a year, the house prices in London are still declining. The largest fall in house prices in July year on year were in London at 0.7%. Many experts believe there is a much needed and natural correction going on in the capital with July’s average house price there recorded as the highest in the UK at £484,926.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported the average house price in the UK for July at £231,000. This is slightly £6,000 over the average for July last year and £2,000 greater than June 2018.

Home buyers are still present in the housing market and first time buyers are still working hard to make their homeownership dreams come true. Despite higher deposits and higher interest rates compared to this time last year, homes are selling and those sellers willing to be aggressive in the market with pricing are being successful quickly.

Homeowners are also taking advantage of the opportunity to secure a low interest rate remortgage before any more increases occur. Some lenders have started to push the recent increase onto borrowers as others had right from the beginning when the Bank of England’s rate setters, the Monetary Policy Committee, hiked the standard base rate by 0.25% to 0.75% at the start of August.

Homeowners and home buyers are encouraged to be savvy shoppers when looking for deals from lenders and brokers. There are still attractive deals available and lenders are in a competitive mode to get the attention of borrowers. Brokers as a reminder have deals that are not offered directly to the public from lenders, so they could be a valuable resource to find a deal.

In some cases the lowest interest rate is not the deal with the greater savings. Incentives attached to deals and those with lower fees can make a slightly higher interest rate the better choice for some.