Buying or selling? How to steer a path through the current rocky housing market

As mortgage rates soar and prices fall, what should buyers or sellers do? Rebecca Goodman gathers tips and advice

Labour will use its opposition day debate to focus on the mortgage crisis (PA)

For millions of Britons who had plans to move house or get on the property ladder this year, the latest mortgage misery coupled with the cost of living crisis makes paints a grim picture.

House prices fell 3.5 per cent in June, when compared with last year, according to the latest Nationwide housing index. This is the fastest drop since 2009, thanks to the pressure of increasing mortgage rates. Yet it’s hard to predict what will happen next as they also rose unexpectedly by 0.1 per cent in the last month to an average of £262,239.

Following the Bank of England’s latest base rate rise to five per cent, mortgage rates have continued to rise and average two-year fixed-rate deals are now 6.37 per cent and five-year fixes are at 5.94 per cent. It is now predicted the base rate could reach 6.5 per cent by the end of the year by many including investment bank Schroders, which said the latest interest rate hike “suggests that the BoE remains far from getting on top of inflation”.