Buyers forced to take out 30-year mortgages as house prices soar

The numbers show how, with interest rates and mortgage costs rising, people are having to struggle more and more to climb the ladder.

Separate figures show couples are now straining more than ever to get up the apartment ladder.

Data released by the Financial Conduct Authority shows that the share of “high” income loans – defined as more than three times income for common borrowers – was 39.2 percent of all mortgage loans in the second quarter of this year.

This is the highest proportion since at least 2007 and compared to 20 percent before the financial crisis.

Bank policymakers are expected to hike interest rates by at least half a percentage point next week as officials struggle to contain rampant inflation.

Andrew Bailey, the governor, and the other eight members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) were due to meet this week but delayed their decision on interest rates following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

It began raising interest rates in December, and next week’s move will bring borrowing costs to at least 2.25 percent, the highest since 2008.

Banks and building societies have passed this along to homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages and those taking out new fixed-rate loans.

The average five-year fixed-rate mortgage taken out by buyers with a 75 percent deposit had an interest rate of 3.6 percent last month.

That’s more than double the 1.4 percent typically charged a year earlier, figures from the bank show.

First-time buyers with a lower deposit pay even more. The typical two-year fix for a buyer with a 10 percent down payment costs 3.9 percent, up from 2.5 percent 12 months ago.

The average property sold in July was £292,118, a record high, according to the Office for National Statistics.

This is an increase of 15.5 percent compared to July 2021 and marks a record jump. That’s partly because much of the stamp duty holiday offered during the pandemic came to an end in June 2021, and prices were briefly pushed back down last summer after the deadline was rushed to be missed.

But prices are still up 12 percent compared to last August and 10 percent compared to June 2021, the final month of the stamp duty break, showing the extent of the boom in the market even after the tax break ended.

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