Bank of England’s Jon Cunliffe says housing market risks are rising
Risks in the housing market are rising, a Bank of England official warned today.
However, deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe added that they were not as high as in 2014 when the Bank took action to cool the market.
“The markets now coming back again, so maybe some of those risks are becoming a little bit more prominent,” Cunliffe told the House of Lords economic affairs committee.
Cunliffe said the number of transactions, price growth relative to earnings, and the proportion of new mortgages at a loan-to-income value above 4.5 were returning to 2014 levels. The Bank opted to take action back then imposing the Mortgage Market Review – which capped high loan-to-income lending at 15 per cent of total mortgage lending.
He added that the Bank had not, and is not, planning to stress test the banking system with regard to possible effects of a vote to leave the EU.