Bank of England lowers Base Rate to 5% - What does that mean for investors?

After voting to keep the Base Rate at 5.25% seven times in a row, the Bank of England has today lowered it to 5%.

The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee decided that this was the right course of action after inflation fell back to 2%, the official national target, for the first time since the target was put in place.

Today’s move means that the Base Rate is still relatively high for modern times, but it is on the way down from its 16-year high. It is also a clear sign that the worst of the economic uncertainty has passed. The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost of living crisis and global energy shortages which combined to send inflation over 10% are behind us.

While the Base Rate is unlikely to return to the extremely low level of 0.1% that was in place until the end of 2021, we can anticipate a gradual fall in the coming months and years down to approximately 3%.

From the perspective of property investment, this is good news in both the short- and the long-term.

Firstly, borrowing is already starting to get cheaper again. Banks and other lenders began to lower rates in July 2024 across the board in anticipation of the Base Rate falling in August.

For example, Nationwide has reintroduced a sub-4% mortgage product and Charlie Nunn, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group says that the era of mortgage rate rises is over.

“Unless there is a material shift in expectations around future rates, mortgage pricing is going to stay pretty stable from here,” he said.

That is a clear signal that mortgage rates are only going to go one way, and investors can plan for the future knowing that their borrowing costs will be cheaper.

Secondly, this reduction in mortgage rates will bring more potential buyers back into the market. When the economy was uncertain, many people were put off by high mortgage rates and competition for homes fell away. That led to house price growth stalling, and values even falling in some cases.

Now, we can expect that market activity will increase and competition for homes will grow, pushing up house prices once more in the coming months and years. For investors, that means it will be easier to sell properties and release the capital appreciation that has built up in them.

It also means that the average house price across the country will increase, helping you to generate more equity in properties that you have invested in previously.

Finally, the rental market should be largely unaffected by this cut in the Base Rate. Even if some more people buy and leave renting behind, they will be replaced by new renters because the fundamental fact is that there are not enough homes to go around.

Construction levels are still low and the number of renters grows every year. Record rents were seen in 2023 and they will remain high this year. For investors, that means your rental income should continue to perform strongly despite the rate cut and lower mortgage rates.

It is possible that rates will drop even further in September and into Q4, so watch out for even cheaper mortgage rates ahead as lenders try to stay ahead of the curve.

Overall, the market is healthy and resilient, and we can look to the future with confidence, knowing that UK property investment remains an extremely strong prospect.