Mark Carney reinforces warning on rising interest rates for home owners
As the previous article in Hinterland on housing this week intimates (and on the basis of the further evidence in this article), the housing market is starting to stir in a range of threatening ways and whilst this article suggests building rates are rising I suspect not for those seeking affordable options. I fear some tears before bed time and some further challenges to sustainable rural settlements, with housing becoming more exclusive on the strength of the analysis in this article which tells us:
Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, has delivered a warning to home owners about the risks of rising interest rates as Threadneedle Street made clear it was keeping a close eye on developments in the housing market.
Carney said that people should check to see if they could still afford their repayments on their home loans, when he said, “rates rise, as they will, when the recovery takes hold”.
Speaking on ITV News Anglia, he reinforced the message from another senior bank official, Paul Fisher, saying both borrowers and lenders should be careful not to overstretch themselves.
Fisher, Threadneedle Street’s executive director of markets, rejected the idea that a property bubble was emerging but stressed that the bank was alert to the risks of another boom-bust.
His comments came as latest construction figures revealed a strong increase in private house building, offering a counterpoint to mounting fears that the ground was being laid for a new housing crash.