September acceleration in rent and mortgage spending highlights ongoing volatility
- Spending on rent and mortgages grew 4.5 per cent year-on-year in September, climbing back up after a 17-month low in August
- Utilities spending decreased -12.5 per cent, a welcome sign before the increase in Ofgem’s energy price cap from 1 October begins to impact household bills
- Barclays Property Insights combines data and research from across the Bank to give an in-depth perspective on emerging housing trends in the UK
Barclays Property Insights reveals that the increase in rent and mortgage spending accelerated in September, increasing 4.5 per cent year-on-year, following August’s slower growth. This comes as the Bank of England held the base rate in September’s MPC meeting. Meanwhile, utilities spending dropped -12.5 per cent, though this is unlikely to persist as winter approaches, as Ofgem’s energy price cap increase came into effect on 1 October.
Encouragingly, consumer confidence in household finances held steady month-on-month at 70 per cent, despite anticipated fluctuations in both housing an energy costs. There was no increase in the proportion of consumers not confident in their ability to meet rent and mortgage payments, remaining at 15 per cent, suggesting that despite interest rates holding, Brits are at least satisfied that further hikes are not on the immediate horizon.
Mark Arnold, Head of Mortgages and Savings at Barclays, said: “While consumer costs continue to be impacted by the ongoing volatility in the housing market, we are still encouraged by the long-term downward trajectory of rent and mortgage spending. The next MPC decision in November will certainly be one to watch, although we recognise that there are multiple complex issues impacting the housing market beyond just interest rates, including supply and demand pressures. I hope we can work alongside government and industry to tackle some of these over the coming months.”
Notes to editors
*Mortgage and rental payments data sourced from Barclays current accounts – e.g. transactions identified as direct debits and bank transfers to mortgage lenders and private landlords. Please note: the data includes payments to multiple lenders (including Barclays). It relates to the period August 19th 2023 – September 22nd 2023 vs August 17th 2024 – September 20th 2024.
Across its issuing and acquiring businesses, Barclays sees nearly 40 per cent of the nation’s credit and debit card transactions, which provides us with unique insight into UK consumer spending. This press release contains consumer card spending data from Barclays’ issuing business – i.e. Barclays debit card and Barclaycard credit card transactions. It relates to the period August 19th 2023 – September 22nd 2023 vs August 17th 2024 – September 20th 2024.
The Barclays Consumer Spend research in this press release was carried out between 20th and 25th September 2024 by Opinium Research on behalf of Barclays. There were 2,000 respondents in each round of research, providing a representative sample of UK consumers by age, gender, region, and income group.
For more information, please contact Annie McQuoid at annie.mcquoid@barclays.com
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Barclays Market and Customer Insights helps businesses keep up to date with spending trends, monitors their market position and enhances their understanding of customer behaviour, based on actual customer spending. For further information, please email contact-MCI@barclays.com.