Rory Joseph

"A BBR of 3% at some point in the next 12-18 months doesn’t feel like a distant or impossible possibility. " It’s intriguing to read the comments of a number of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members, including the Governor himself, over the last days all attempting to pour cold water on expectations that Bank Base Rate (BBR) will be cut, and cut aggressively over the next 12 months.

It’s interesting to note that over the past couple of weeks, particularly since we didn’t get a rate cut at the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, there has been a notable ramping up of activity and price cutting from lenders. One wonders if there was an expectation that ongoing Bank Base Rate (BBR) cuts would continue to drive stronger interest and demand as we saw in August, and when that didn’t materialise in September, they have taken it upon themselves to act.

Sometimes in life, things that you believe are dead and buried make a return. Things like vinyl records or ’90s fashion end up finding a new generation and having a welcome resurgence. Of course, in the mortgage market we find that some returns are not so welcome, and indeed are not just entirely baffling, but totally out of keeping with the environment that we are all supposed to be contributing, and working, towards.