Mortgage approvals for house purchase fell to 53,400 in September, from 54,800 in August, according to the Bank of England. The previous six month average was 58,800.
Remortgage approvals, which count borrowers switching lender, rose to 42,600 from 34,000. The effective rate on newly drawn mortgages was 4.63%, up from 4.60%.
Put those together and you can see two groups behaving differently. Fewer people are buying. More people are moving existing debt onto a new deal.
If you hold property with debt, the date your fixed-rate deal ends may be one of the most important dates in your portfolio this year. A rate that was set when the loan was taken out is a bit like a seasonal price in a shop: it holds until the day it doesn't. The new rate then has to be covered by the rent on that particular building.
A simple habit is to write down the end date for each loan, and next to it the rent and the monthly payment you would see at today's rates.
Do you keep your loan end dates in one place, or property by property?
Related: Portfolio tracking for property investors
Co-founder of Propalt and a property investor and developer for 20 years
