\n<\/p>\n
On a warm, spring morning in Canterbury, the cobbled streets are buzzing with activity and the white Tudor houses gleam in the sun.<\/p>\n
It is a scene that seems far removed from events in the Middle East, but the conflict is undermining business and consumer confidence \u2013 rattling the city\u2019s housing market just as the spring selling season began.<\/p>\n
Spooked by surging oil prices and inflation fears, lenders pulled hundreds of mortgage products within 48 hours of the outbreak of war, replacing them with more expensive deals. Buyers and sellers, in turn, are having second thoughts and some are pulling out of deals altogether.<\/p>\n
The mood is one of \u201cfear and uncertainty\u201d, says Andy Wicking, the director of the Charles Bainbridge estate agency. \u201cIt\u2019s very nervous. There are lots of anxious people.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the first three months of this year, just 47% of homeowners who asked Wicking to value their property went on to list it \u2013 \u201cquite a significant drop\u201d on the 68% for the same period in 2025. In effect, owners are still asking for valuations but not acting on them.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Andy Wicking, a Canterbury estate agent, says the property market lacks \u2018competition and confidence\u2019. <\/span> Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n At the bottom end, first-time buyers, those with the smallest deposits and the least experience of riding out a turbulent market, are pulling out. \u201cThe chains falling down at the lower end, they\u2019re the really cautious ones,\u201d Wicking says. \u201cAnd funnily enough, they\u2019re the ones that the market really, really needs.\u201d<\/p>\n Wicking, who has spent 20 years selling homes across Kent, insists that sales are still moving and there are \u201calways going to be deaths, debt and divorce, and people that have to sell\u201d. But he is working to get deals across the line as fast as possible. \u201cThe longer a chain goes on, the more buyer\u2019s remorse and fear sets in,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s very important to get the offer, get the deal done, get it across the line quick.\u201d<\/p>\n For those who do make it to market, prices are slumping. \u201cThe competition and the confidence isn\u2019t there now,\u201d Wicking says. Sellers could expect bidding wars only a few months ago but a house he values at \u00a3600,000 may now go on at \u00a3575,000 to get buyers through the door. Surveyors are increasingly down-valuing properties too. It is, Wicking says with an estate agent\u2019s cheerful confidence, a matter of \u201cprice to entice\u201d.<\/p>\n Canterbury\u2019s ancient cathedral and Roman walls speak to a deep history. Each house in the centre is unique, Wicking says, with Victorian terraces, Georgian townhouses and Tudor timber frames that lean out over the bunting-lined streets at improbable angles. \u201cYou buy with your heart down here,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n But that is not the only attraction. A city of fewer than 100,000 people, Canterbury is a mix of longstanding locals and London leavers who arrived after the pandemic in search of more space for their money. At the higher end, a London terrace worth more than \u00a31m might buy something comparable here for half that price.<\/p>\n <\/span>Canterbury has attracted London leavers who can get much more home for their money.<\/span> Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Martin Short has been trying to sell his home for three years but viewings have \u201cdropped through the floor since Iran\u201d, he said. The property was difficult to value \u2013 a converted Georgian pub in Bekesbourne, a village just outside Canterbury. It has already fallen from an asking price of \u00a3750,000 to \u00a3525,000, buffeted down repeatedly by high interest rates after Liz Truss\u2019s mini-budget and uncertainty before Labour\u2019s recent budgets.<\/p>\n His agents are pushing for another reduction but he is refusing: \u201cIt\u2019s not the price of our property, it\u2019s the lack of people able to proceed. The damage had already been done, and then we got this situation. Everybody\u2019s sitting on their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Two chains had already collapsed on him before the Iran war started. Both buyers had properties of their own they needed to sell and both deals fell through. One of the buyers, a woman trying to move back to Kent from Bristol, is still in contact but she cannot sell her flat either. \u201cWe\u2019re trapped,\u201d Short says.<\/p>\n He knows of at least five houses where the price has been cut. In the nearby medieval town of Sandwich, a home has just come down to the price it fetched two years ago. Short says: \u201cIt\u2019s not quite negative equity but they\u2019re not going to make any money on it. Any value that\u2019s accrued on that property in two years has disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n Similar stories are playing out across the country. Property prices fell by 0.5% in March compared with a month earlier, according to Halifax, pushing the average price of a home back below the \u00a3300,000 mark to \u00a3299,677. Annual price growth eased to 0.8%, down from 1.2% the previous month.<\/p>\n Brian Swint, an independent mortgage broker, sits between the lenders repricing their products and the buyers and sellers trying to keep up with rates. \u201cWe went from pricing in two or three interest rate cuts this year to two or three hikes,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge swing within a month.\u201d<\/p>\n The average two-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at 5.90% on Wednesday, up from 4.83% at the start of March and the highest since July 2024, according to the data provider Moneyfacts.<\/p>\n Swint, who is based in Brighton, said the anxiety was probably misplaced. \u201cIt\u2019s the fear,\u201d he says. \u201cObjectively, mortgage rates aren\u2019t crazy high \u2026 but people are worried.\u201d<\/p>\n Nonetheless, nearly a million homeowners are due to come off five-year fixed deals this year, according to the Financial Conduct Authority. Those who have secured new deals are paying an average of \u00a394 more a month, according to figures from the Connells Group estate agency.<\/p>\n All this has struck just when owners would usually bring their homes to market after hunkering down for the winter. \u201cThe timing couldn\u2019t be worse for a huge energy shock \u2013 now is when people are really getting serious about moving,\u201d Swint says.<\/p>\n Share your experience<\/p>\n Have you lost a mortgage deal or been affected by rising interest rates in recent weeks? If you\u2019ve had to change housing plans – we\u2019d like to hear from you. Please respond in the form below or by messaging us. <\/p>\n Your responses, which can be anonymous, are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature and we will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For alternative ways to get in touch securely please see our tips guide.<\/p>\n Have you lost recent mortgage deals or been affected by rising interest rates? <\/p>\n Please include as much detail as possible. <\/p>\n Have you changed your housing plans in anyway? Optional<\/span><\/p>\n Please include as much detail as possible. <\/p>\n Do you have concerns? Optional<\/span><\/p>\n Please include as much detail as possible. <\/p>\n If you are happy to, please upload a photo of yourself here Optional<\/span><\/p>\n Please note, the maximum file size is 5.7 MB.<\/p>\n Choose file<\/p>\n Can we publish your response? <\/p>\n You can add more information here Optional<\/span><\/p>\n If you include other people’s names please ask them first.<\/p>\n Would you be interested in speaking to our audio and\/or video teams? <\/p>\n By submitting your response, you are agreeing to share your details with us for this feature.<\/p>\n Submit<\/p>\n <\/span>Show more<\/p>\n A two-week ceasefire in Iran, agreed on Wednesday, brought some relief, with markets cutting their forecasts for UK interest rate rises. But mortgage experts have cautioned that rates are unlikely to fall quickly, and the volatility of the conflict could hammer markets again.<\/p>\n Back in Canterbury, Wicking, never one to knowingly undersell a market, is putting a positive spin on things. \u201cI don\u2019t mind a bit of chaos, I don\u2019t mind a bit of uncertainty. It creates opportunity,\u201d he says, adding that buyers now have an excuse to be \u201ccheeky\u201d with their offers. \u201cI\u2019ve never been in a bad market because it\u2019s always good for somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n Short, the seller, is more blunt: \u201cYou\u2019re dominated by what\u2019s happening the other side of the world. The opportunities are getting less. I do feel powerless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On a warm, spring morning in Canterbury, the cobbled streets are buzzing with activity and the white Tudor houses gleam in the sun. It is a scene that seems far removed from events in the Middle East, but the conflict is undermining business and consumer confidence \u2013 rattling the city\u2019s housing market just as the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[7130,9426,671,1264,84,20325,306,269,11165,5343,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-48237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-confidence","9":"tag-despair","10":"tag-house","11":"tag-housing","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-knocks","14":"tag-market","15":"tag-prices","16":"tag-sellers","17":"tag-trapped","18":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}