Pre-budget Bond Market Panic Hits Mortgage Rates

5 Fact Friday – 4th September 2026

5FF 4th September 2026

1. Knight Frank AND Savills appear to stop talking house prices up! A major change in tone reflecting the current difficulty in selling homes at higher price levels.
   https://x.com/moving_charlie/status/2094778566814613671?s=20

Both Knight Frank AND Savills putting out realistic commentary today.

As welcome as it is unexpected.

Either my barrage of criticism has landed, or they've realised that talking up falling prices has only damaged their credibility, or they've realised that transactions (as… pic.twitter.com/Yrz9Wt0g2P

— Moving Home with Charlie (@moving_charlie) September 1, 2026

2. UK Gilt yields up at 2008 levels (government borrowing costs) to push mortgage rates up further

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-01/surge-in-uk-borrowing-costs-halves-government-s-fiscal-headroom

3. HMRC Reports improving completed transaction volumes for July up 5% (media misreports them using seasonally-adjusted figures)
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/monthly-property-transactions-completed-in-the-uk-with-value-40000-or-above/uk-monthly-property-transactions-commentary–2

4. Bank of England mortgage approvals for July in at 65,000 (not the 56k reported by seasonally-adjusted dipsticks) which is still down on July 2025’s 77,000 but not as bad as reported
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/fromshowcolumns.asp?Travel=NIxSUx&FromSeries=1&ToSeries=50&DAT=RNG&FD=1&FM=Jan&FY=2022&TD=2&TM=Sep&TY=2026&FNY=&CSVF=TT&html.x=112&html.y=32&C=10Z&Filter=N

5. Mortgage “nightmare” as traders price in three rate hikes in next 18 months
https://www.cityam.com/mortgage-nightmare-as-investors-price-in-three-interest-rate-hikes/