'Nobody should be caught off-guard'

John Philips, operations director at Just Mortgages

“This latest 0.25 percentage point rise may feel like a step in the wrong direction for the mortgage market, but it’s widely accepted to be a necessary step in the battle to curb inflation.

“Although the base rate has gone up, we have seen mortgage prices falling in recent months and customer enquires to our brokers across the country have been remarkably robust since the start of the year.

“The advantage of yet another rate rise is that nobody should be caught off-guard and I think that brokers are doing a tremendous job in managing the expectations of clients and finding them the right deal."