Interest rates and Halifax report
June 5, 2015
UK interest rates have been held at 0.5% again by the Bank of England.
The Bank also kept the size of its bond-buying stimulus programme unchanged at £375bn. The decision by the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) comes more than six years after the record low was introduced.
The number of properties on the market is at its lowest level for many years, according to the Halifax.
This shortage of homes for sale, coupled with demand from buyers, has led to prices rising at a faster rate than wages, the lender said. Property prices rose by 8.6% over the year to the end of May, pushing the cost of the average home up to £196,067, its own lending data shows. Yet prices dipped by 0.1% in May compared with April.
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