All eyes will now be on the Bank of England following the tapering of stamp duty holiday, David Whittaker, CEO of specialist buy-to-let lender Keystone Property Finance, has said.
There had been an expectation the Bank of England would raise the best rate when it last made an announcement. However, the BoE declined despite mounting inflationary pressure.
Now, earlier today the Bank released figures which revealed that mortgage lending had slowed significantly following the tapering of the stamp duty holiday.
Whittaker said: “The data this month shows that the tapering of the SDLT holiday officially came to an end in October as Mortgage borrowing amounted to £1.6bn. Meanwhile mortgage approvals dipped for another consecutive month.
“With the SDLT spike now in the rear-view mirror, all eyes are now on the BofE. Inflation is still a large spectre haunting the central bank psyche and the uncertainty around new Omicron variant slowly making its way into Britain is likely to add to an already cloudy picture.
“Even more focus will now be on the next interest rate decision to provide some more clarity for lenders and homeowners when it comes to rates”
