Why UK Mortgage Rates Aren’t as High as You Think

In an earlier episode of Merryn Talks Money, reporter Neil Callanan joined the podcast to talk house prices. It’s fair to say his outlook for the UK housing market was not optimistic. It is, he said, entirely possible that prices across the UK will end this cycle down 40% in real terms (adjusted for inflation). This week, Bloomberg Opinion writer Marcus Ashworth joined Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek to make a different case. He contends that the mortgage rates actually paid by buyers are nothing like the ones you see on the panicked pages of Sunday newspapers. Not only that, but UK planning rules have kept supply far too tight, he argues, turning it into a “cash-led” market.

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