The distinction, he argued, is an important one. Buyers are not reacting to economic events in the abstract, they are reacting to the uncertainty those events generate around their monthly finances. “If anything is causing people to hesitate, it’s not one particular headline. It’s the feeling that the economic goalposts keep moving.”
That sense of shifting ground has been a persistent feature of the mortgage market over the past two years, with lenders repricing products at short notice and swap rate volatility making it difficult for borrowers – and advisers – to plan with confidence. For those following recent analysis of UK mortgage rate trends and lender behaviour, the pattern will be familiar.
How buy-to-let and high-net-worth borrowers are responding
Oportfolio specialises in high-net-worth and buy-to-let lending, two segments that Mason said are behaving distinctly from the broader residential market, but not necessarily in the ways one might expect.
“High-net-worth borrowers generally have more capacity to absorb rate movements, but that doesn’t mean they’re indifferent to them,” he said. “Sophisticated borrowers can be some of the most rate-conscious because the numbers involved are much larger. A small difference on a £1.5 million mortgage is very different from a small difference on £150,000.”
Buy-to-let landlords, meanwhile, are approaching investment decisions in an increasingly clinical way. “Professional landlords are increasingly treating property like any other investment: if the yield, financing and long-term numbers work, they’ll proceed. If they don’t, sentiment isn’t going to rescue the deal.”
