April 2022 Market update 
 
With UK property prices continuing to surge on in 2022, with the average house price increasing 14.3% 
according to the Nationwide building society house price index. We look at what has happened this 
month and what we can expect moving forward. 
 
Lenders are relaxing their criteria 
Lenders change their offerings, products and interest rates all the time to attract new customers and 
keep current customers. With the property market still booming this competition is only getting hotter. As 
a result, lenders are starting to relax criteria to attract customers with some lenders increasing the 
maximum age in which they will lend to customers and some high street lenders offering mortgage 
products for those with minor adverse credit. More lenders are also returning to the 95% loan to value 
product range also to enable those first time buyers buy a home with a minimal deposit as they struggle 
to save during a time where the cost of living is increasing. 
 
BTL lenders increasing minimum property value 
As property prices continue to increase this year Buy to Let lenders are beginning to increase the 
minimum property value that they will lend on. Prior to the pandemic, most lenders had a minimum 
property value of £50,000. As we entered lockdowns and the pandemic drew on, some lenders 
increased their minimums from anywhere between £75,000 - £100,000. This month we saw of the few 
lenders remaining with a minimum of £50,000 increase their minimum to £75,000. 
 
This is partly due to the fact there are very few properties on the market and the properties on the market 
that are valued at £50,000 do not meet the standards mortgage companies set. As properties continue to 
increase in value this minimum property value may increase further, but I don’t see this happening for a 
long time as we would need to see more substantial growth for this to happen. 
 
Potential rate rises 
The questions brokers up and down the country get asked more than any other “Will rates continue to 
rise?”. This question is very difficult to answer and here’s why. The main reason the Bank of England 
increase the base rate is to curb inflation and inflation is currently sitting at around 7% today. Which is 
much higher than the Bank of England’s annual target of 2%. So, you would expect interest rates to 
increase again to help combat rising inflation. However, with the cost of living increasing – council tax, 
utilities and fuel etc, does the Bank of England really have an option to increase the cost of borrowing on 
the biggest loan people have? 
 
I personally don’t see an interest rate rise happening until the end of the year. The government needs to 
solve the rising cost of living such as setting energy tariffs, creating UK based energy sources and 
securing fuel into the country at a lower cost. Until they do that, they cannot apply further stress onto UK 
households by increasing the cost of another household expense. A rise of 0.5% on every £100,000 
borrowing would see your monthly payments increase by £41.66. For some households who are 
struggling to make ends meet this could lead to default and financial ruin. 
 
Although we are seeing interest rate rises rather frequently now (3 rises in 5 months) the interest rates 
we are seeing are still below pre pandemic levels. The introduction of the first lockdown in March 2020 
saw rates slashed to 0.1%. So the regular increases since then feel like a lot, and rates feel high 
compared to the historic lows we experienced in 2020. But we are still below the historical average 
interest rate of 6%. 
 
 
 
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