1 May 2018

In the same time, the housing sector and rental and leasing industry was down by 0.2%, following the previous drop by 0.5%. It’s the first two-month decrease shown by this segment since the summer of 2010.

The reason for such a drop could be the new mortgage stress test, introduced in January. The industry was showing a strong activity before the stricter rules took effect.

We’ve seen the output of real estate agents and brokers going down by 7.9% after a 12.9% decline reported in January.

Nevertheless, according to economist Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics, the worst for the housing market is probably over.

“The main influence of the new mortgage rules seems to be limited to only those two months, as the seasonally adjusted national home sales remained mostly unchanged last month”, – he added.