“In terms of rates, obviously we’re seeing swaps jumping around and I think that’s more to do with global events than it is to do with Burnham himself in the few days he’s been in,” he said. “I think it’d be a bit harsh to say it’s all his fault.”
Markets had not reacted unfavourably when Burnham’s path to the Labour leadership became clear. “As soon as it was mooted that Burnham was going to be unchallenged going to the position in Number 10, markets didn’t react unfavourably,” he said.
As the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee weighs its next rate decision, analysts have flagged that sustained gilt yield pressure could feed through to fixed-rate mortgage pricing, a dynamic largely outside any prime minister’s control.
Buy-to-let: adapting regardless of who governs
On buy-to-let, Mendes offered a grounded assessment. Landlord clients at John Charcol have been repositioning their portfolios for some time, driven not by any single policy, but by the sustained pressure of higher rates.
“The buy-to-let clients that we’ve been talking to, regardless of who’s in power, I think they’ve been pretty under the cosh for a while,” he said. “In a period where you had low rates, it was very easy to get a property, flip it or hold onto it. You had the rental income, you had the growth. Whereas now, in the last few years where we have seen rates a lot higher, we’re definitely seeing a lot of clients adjusting their portfolios.”