“Prediction is very difficult,” quipped Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr, “especially if it’s about the future.” Unfortunately prediction is now a deeply practical matter for the nearly 1 million Londoners with a mortgage, many of whom currently benefit from cheap fixed-rate deals, but precious few of whom possess either a doctoral degree in quantum theory or one in macroeconomic forecasting.
A prolonged period of low interest rates – an anomaly by historic standards – has meant nearly 15 years of cheap debt. That’s allowed buyers to raise ever-larger mortgages, which in turn has driven up house prices – nowhere more so than in London.
