Are homeowners suffering from a severe bout of main character syndrome? A decade of record-low interest rates fuelled a prolonged house price boom that was impervious even to a once-in-a-century pandemic.
But as interest rates have climbed to 4.5 per cent and two-year fixes now float above 6 per cent, we are hearing howls of anguish from the over-leveraged. On the one hand, this is fair enough. Borrowers are going to face difficult choices as their monthly repayments soar. On the other hand, renters may be forgiven for muttering: “welcome to our world”.
