With little room for interest rate cuts to stimulate the economy, the Bank of England has announced it is keeping the base interest rate on hold at 0.5%.

However, the Bank did announce that it will inject an extra £50bn into the UK economy as part of it’s quantitive easing measures.

The move on interest rates was expected given the lack of freedom to cut rates further. Added to this is the expectation by many homeowners that savings in mortgage payments has reached their peak.

Nick Hopkinson of Property Portfolio Rescue told Sky News that the ‘recent flurry of interest rate cuts have done little to kickstart the mortgage market and until the banks start lending again, the UK economy in general and house prices in particular will continue to decline.’

“House prices still have a long way to fall and I would expect to see repossessions and, as a result, company liquidations and unemployment to continue to rise for the rest of 2009 and into 2010.

Our analysis of distressed seller enquiries indicates repossessions will top 70,000 in 2009 and UK unemployment will exceed 3.3 million by the end of this year.

No one should delay selling in the hope of imminent house price rises, as they are set to fall a further 10 to 15% this year as the credit crunch continues to bite.”