Mortgage rates moved twice in eight days
Why finding out whether the buyers are there comes before deciding to sell.
open for offer lets you test the market before you list. Your home sits in the pre-market, buyers register interest, and nothing is advertised.
In the first half of September, major lenders put their mortgage rates up twice in eight days. The trade press reported the first round on 8 September and the second on 16 September.
Between the two, the Bank of England's chief economist called publicly for a rise in Bank Rate.
In July the Bank had held it at 3.75% on a six-to-three vote, with the three wanting a rise.
Five-year swap rates, which fixed-rate mortgages are priced from, passed 4.5% in early September. That is roughly a three-year high, and it points the same way whatever the Bank does next.
House prices have been flat for about two years. In August the Lloyds index put them 0.4% below a year earlier, and the forecasts for 2026 have been revised downward all year.
What this does to the buyers of your home
A buyer's budget is a monthly payment. When rates rise, the same payment supports a smaller loan. The buyer who could have stretched to your number in January may not reach it now.
Fewer sales are completing. HMRC counted 96,710 residential transactions in July, down on a year earlier, the first annual fall of 2026.
There are still buyers. Low-deposit lending is at an eighteen-year high. They are simply more careful about the number, and the number keeps moving.
None of that is an argument against selling. It is an argument for knowing your market before you list.
The traditional way makes you decide first
A traditional listing asks you to commit before you know anything. You choose an agent, agree an asking price, and the advert goes up.
Only then do you learn what buyers think of the figure.
If the answer is lower than you hoped, the record shows it. The price cut is public. The weeks on the market are public. You can cut the price. You cannot un-list.
In a month when buyers' budgets are moving week by week, that is the wrong order.
Find out first, then decide
Testing the market reverses the order. You set no asking price. Buyers register interest in the pre-market, and the queue shows you how much interest came back.
Nothing is advertised, and there is no board outside.
You see every registered interest in one place, and you decide what happens next. Nothing obliges you to answer any of it.
If the interest is there, you know before you commit to anything. If it is not, nothing public has happened, and you can wait for a better month.
There is no asking price to be seen reducing, and no days-on-market clock.
You do not have to decide to sell to find out whether the buyers are there.
If your home is in Stamford or Cambridge
The arithmetic above is the same on a Stamford terrace and a Cambridge semi.
The question this autumn is not what your home was worth in January. It is whether a buyer is there for it now.
Start with a market estimate. It is based on your home's last recorded sale, adjusted for price movement since, from HM Land Registry data, and it costs nothing.
We hold records on 14.4 million homes in England and Wales, so the estimate is there for yours whether or not you have ever spoken to us. Then test the market on it.
Get your market estimate · Test the market on your home · Get started
Common questions
What happened to mortgage rates in September 2026?
Major lenders repriced upward twice in eight days, reported on 8 and 16 September, and the Bank of England's chief economist called for a rise in Bank Rate.
Should I wait to sell until rates settle?
You do not have to decide. Testing the market shows you whether the buyers are there now, without advertising your home, so you can wait with the answer in hand rather than guess.
How is the market estimate calculated?
It is based on your home's last recorded sale, adjusted for price movement since, using HM Land Registry data. It is an estimate, not a valuation, and it costs nothing.
What do buyers see when I test the market?
Your area and property type, that the owner is open to offers, and the queue of interest on the property page. Nothing is advertised and there is no board outside.