Mark Carney and the FPC are watching Buy to Let

In an interview with the Financial Times yesterday defending ‘Forward Guidance’ Mark Carney, The Governor of the Bank of England, expressed concerns if Buy to Let investors were to all sell at the same time in the event of a fall in house prices.

Mr Carney said “So we do have to be careful around that sector. And I think collectively there are a number of things happening and we are watching it, we are watching it closely and we will take action”.

This is nothing new and the FPC had previously expressed concerns for the stability of the housing market over the increased level of Buy to Let lending and what might happen if investors were to rapidly exit.

There are now over 2 million people declaring property related income to HMRC and 1.7 million Buy to Let loans representing 16% all outstanding mortgages in the UK.

It is only prudent that the Bank of England consider if action may be required to such a large part of the lending and housing sector, but so far they have taken no recent action specific to Buy to Let.

As the Bank of England make no comment on political policy, and indeed seemed surprised by the capping of Buy to Let mortgage interest relief, they may consider this along with the increase in stamp duty to be more than effective enough to cool the market.

Mark Carney’s comments have all been previously stated and he is very good at using the old economics ploy of affecting markets by doing nothing other than managing peoples expectations.