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Article: UK housing market unlikely to tumble: although house prices continue to rise, interest rates are unlikely to reach past levels and unemployment is bottoming out -- so a crash in the housing market remains unlikely. (Fitch).
- Article from:
- The Banker
- Article date:
- January 1, 2003
- Author:
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Media fears of a housing market crash appear overstated, although the rise in UK households' net indebtedness, much of which is secured on housing, has been accelerating since early 2001. Nevertheless, some deterioration in the operating environment for the UK mortgage lenders is inevitable, a prospect they are well-equipped to deal with.
In turn this should support lenders' high ratings, all of which have at least stable rating outlooks (the recent downgrade of Abbey National to AA- from AA was attributable to problems in its wholesale and life assurance businesses rather than its traditional mortgage lending activity).
The latest surveys in November, ...