Richard Meeson, a partner at Dreweatt Neate stated, ‘What the housing market dislikes more than anything is uncertainty, so a hold on rates generally goes down well. While any such move is to be welcomed, it has created uncertainty in the property market, to such an extent that even if the Bank of England had cut rates, the property market would still have been on the back foot. The government urgently needs to make a decision on stamp duty because, until it does, transactions levels and property prices could fall further as people sit tight – and who can blame them?’

He added, “On a more positive note, we are seeing a big increase in activity among the professional property investors we deal with. Many see now and the months ahead as a great opportunity to buy.’

“We think that in most respects the UK is undergoing a U.S.-style housing correction,” said David Page, economist at Investec, who expects house prices will continue falling until the end of next year before finding a bottom. We think that this is likely to be followed up by years of much flatter growth than we have seen for the bulk of the preceding decade.”

“The lack of mortgage finance is central to the problem,” Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said in the statement. “London, in particular, appears to be having its own special summer sale, with over 21,000 pounds off in a month.”

“This is all about bailing out the subprime lending industry,” said Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, a nonprofit that advocates for low-income Californians in the state budget process. “They will have checks written to them by the state of California if this goes through.”

“I can’t comment on what’s being discussed in budget negotiations, but Republicans won’t support anything that hurts our economy,” said Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines of Clovis.

Peter Williams, Executive Director of IMLA, stated, “The findings of the survey show intermediaries as realistic but not unduly disheartened. They recognise that mortgage volumes will be lower in the year ahead than they have been in the past and that they need to adjust their business models accordingly - for example relying on technology to a greater extent to handle applications. House prices are expected to see a modest correction, but in the absence of forced sellers in the market place, they do not anticipate a major collapse in property values. These more positive perceptions contrast with the more negative commentary that currently dominates the market and reflects the fact these are locality based views.

“People will have to tighten their belts and will be doing so over a long period,” said Nick Kounis, chief European economist at Fortis Bank NV in Amsterdam. “This is not going to be over anytime soon. We predict the U.K. will experience a recession in the second half of this year.”

“It is turning out to be a very grim summer for many retailers,” said Andy Clarke, retail director at Wal-Mart Inc.’s Asda chain and chairman of the panel overseeing the CBI’s survey. “Pressure from higher fuel and food prices is prompting many people to rein in their spending.”

`There’s so much uncertainty about where prices are going, I think that’s one reason why the level of transactions in the housing market is so low,” former Bank of England Deputy Governor Rachel Lomax said.

Steve Willey of MoneySupermarket.com stated, “In many countries, banks will give you a card on condition that you close a card with another provider. This is something the banks or Financial Services Authority need to consider. To have £158 billion available to spend on credit is crazy. To put it into context, that is more than the Government spends annually on health and defence put together.”

“Having credit is no bad thing as long as it used prudently. These figures show, on the whole, consumers are behaving sensibly but many banks aren’t. It is smart of people to take out a new card with a long zero per cent purchase offer or generous cashback scheme, but they should be compelled to close the card it replaces.”

“Lenders reported that their expectations for the housing market, the changing economic outlook and changes in their appetite for risk had contributed to the decline in credit availability,” a Bank of England survey stated. “Lenders expected these factors to contribute to the tightening in credit availability over the next three months.”

“The credit crunch has significantly softened the connection between swaps and fixes: lenders have been keen to improve margin rather than market share and have been slow to pass on falls in swap rates to new borrowers,” stated Melanie Bien of Savills Private Finance.

Katie Tucker of John Charcol stated, “Whilst buy-to-let remortgaging remains at previous strong levels, less than 3% of mortgages taken out in March were people taking the plunge into purchasing. The high cost of the mortgages has had an immediate effect, as has the lack of confidence that property value will increase in the next few years. This should change if improving rental yields tip the balance as the rental market soaks up the displaced first-time buyers, however this could take six months to a year.”

“Far fewer people are arranging their mortgages on an interest only basis now. Property value is not expected to increase in the next few years, so most borrowers have realised that equity won’t be naturally home-grown, and they must repay some capital monthly. In addition, many of the borrowers who would have needed to go interest-only because their affordability was stretched, have been forced out of the buying pool following the recent advent of tightened lender criteria.”

Moneyfacts Mortgage Expert Darren Cook stated, “If the current economic climate persists, it is not unreasonable to predict that we may see a situation where a higher proportion of borrowers are on their lender’s SVR, rather than on an actual mortgage deal. With lenders such as ING Direct (UK) having an SVR as low as 5.64%, this isn’t bad news for all customers. If the Bank of England maintains its current base rate level, or indeed drops it further, the lender’s SVR rates will become increasingly attractive.

Matthew Carter, divisional director for mortgages at Nationwide, said: “As a building society we always aim to offer our members the best possible deals. However, we have seen continued large rises in money market rates together with further competitor activity and as a result it has been necessary to increase the rates on our range of mortgages. While markets remain volatile we can expect to see frequent changes to fixed rate mortgages across the industry.”