HOUSING MARKET COLLAPSE NOW SEEN AS INEVITABLE

Mortgage lending declined to an estimated £9.1 billion last month, falling an eye-popping from £13.4 billion in December and a 21% fall from £11.5 billion from a year ago.

This is the lowest monthly total since February 2000 (£7.9 billion) and the lowest January total since 2000 (£7.4 billion). The massive drop between December and January this year confirms that December’s blip was people taking advantage of the stamp duty holiday….which is now coming to an end.

A major drop in UK property prices is now inevitable in The Slog’s view…because interest rates must go up. Retail lenders already know this: to fix a mortgage for more than two years now costs a high premium with outrageously high arrangement charges.

This is the start of the correction. You read it here first.