‘Kicking myself I didn’t move faster’: fear and panic grips housing market

Dark clouds descend over Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, where data from a local estate agent indicates the slump in house prices has begun. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

The phone has all but stopped ringing at Mullucks estate agent in Bishop’s Stortford – except for calls from buyers with bad news about collapsing chains.

Since the chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget two weeks ago, a chill has spread through the Hertfordshire commuter town’s housing market. Viewing numbers, house prices and client confidence are all cooling rapidly after lenders pulled thousands of mortgage deals, only to return with far pricier interest rates.