At last the housing market shows signs of cooling. But will it catch a chill?

Growth is slowing in most regions. This is only to be expected as household incomes fall and a ceiling of affordability is reached, argues James Moore

House price growth has started to slow, according to the Nationwide Building Society (PA)

Some of the more conspiratorially minded observers may have nodded sagely when the Bank of England declined to join the US Federal Reserve and the Swiss National Bank in going for a half-point interest rate rise on the day of the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.

Instead, the UK’s rate-setting MPC stuck to its favoured quarter-point increase. “House prices you see,” may have been the response from those more conspiratorially-minded observers. “That’s all they care about. Protecting the market.”

Governor Andrew Bailey’s warning that the UK will suffer higher inflation for longer than other developed economies was just grist to their mill. Bailey has made it clear that British households will have to suffer some pain. Yet he declined to join the three external members of the MPC who rebelled and backed a half-point rise – a rise they have now advocated for three straight meetings.