The recent rise in mortgage rates has not stopped would-be buyers from looking to move home, according to Persimmon.
The FTSE 100 housebuilder, one of the biggest in Britain, has sold more houses in the opening few months of this year than it did over the same period of 2023 and it continues to be “encouraged by the level of visitors to our sites”.
Combined with a similarly robust recent update from Taylor Wimpey, a rival, the suggestion from the housebuilding industry is that there has not been the drop-off in demand that some players had feared. Mortgage rates had been falling steadily from their highs last summer, but with financial markets becoming less sure about when the Bank of England will start cutting interest