The base rate hasn't moved. Your buyer's mortgage has.

On 30 July 2026 the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee left the base rate at 3.75% for the fifth meeting running. Three of the nine members voted to raise it. Nine days later, on 7 August, Lloyds reported that annual house price growth had slowed to 0.1%, the weakest since November 2023.

Read together, those two headlines suggest a market sitting still. The number that matters to you is doing something different.

Why has my buyer's mortgage got dearer if the base rate hasn't changed?

The base rate is the interest rate the Bank of England pays commercial banks on money held with it, and it moves only when the Monetary Policy Committee votes to move it. A fixed-rate mortgage is priced off something else: what lenders expect interest rates to do over the next two or five years, and what it costs them to borrow money at a fixed price for that period.

So a lender can leave its tracker products alone and still reprice its fixed deals upward. That is what happened over June and July 2026. Inflation was 2.6% in the year to June, above the Bank's 2% target, and three MPC members voted for a rise rather than a hold. Expectations moved, and fixed pricing followed.

How much less can my buyer afford now?

A tenth of a percentage point sounds like nothing. It is not nothing to the person filling in the affordability form.

• The extra £125 a month comes out of the same salary the lender is testing. It reduces the maximum loan the buyer will be offered, not just their comfort.
• Buyers at the edge of their budget feel it first. That is disproportionately first-time buyers and anyone stretching to a bigger home.
• Lenders stress-test at a rate above the one being offered, so a small rise in the headline rate can move the maximum loan by more than the monthly payment suggests.
• A buyer who was approved in principle in January and is only now offering may be working with a smaller number than they think.

What does a flat market mean for my asking price?

Two indices published within a fortnight put annual growth at 0.1% (Lloyds, 7 August 2026) and 1.8% (Nationwide, 1 August 2026). They measure different things, so they rarely agree exactly, but neither describes a market that is carrying sellers upward.

Zoopla reported on 30 July 2026 that around a third of the homes listed since the start of April were still unsold and had never had a price reduction. Those are the sellers waiting for a market that is not coming to meet them.

In a flat year, the asking price has to do the work the market used to do for you.

What should I do differently this month?

• Price to today's evidence, not to what a neighbour achieved in 2024. Recent sold prices on your street are worth more than any index.
• Ask a buyer what rate their agreement in principle was based on and when it was issued. An offer built on January's pricing may not survive the lender's final check.
• Treat a buyer with a signed-off mortgage offer as materially safer than one at the enquiry stage, and price the certainty in.
• Get more than one valuation before you set the number, so you can see the spread rather than one agent's opinion of it.

Is this a bad time to sell?

It is a slower time, not a closed one. Homes are still selling; they are selling to buyers who have checked their numbers twice and who reward a realistic asking price. The sellers struggling are the ones priced for a market that ended some time ago.

ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents, so you can see what several agents genuinely think your home is worth before you commit to a number or to an agency. The decision, the timing and the price stay yours.