2010 may well be the year the average buyer is priced out of the UK housing market
The credit crunch has made it difficult for genuine buyers to get access to really cheap mortgages. Plus, there will be more stock coming on to the market which should reduce the pace of house price increases. House price affordability has started falling for the first time since the slump in property values, meaning that prices are now once again moving out of reach of the average buyer.
The findings would have seemed highly unlikely at the beginning of 2009, when house prices were tumbling and past experience suggested that it would take some years for the property market to find its feet again. However, the combination of record low interest rates and a series of Government programmes to support homeowners have helped prices to turn around far quicker than expected.
In a study to be published on Monday, the Centre for Economics and Business Research is expected to predict that house price growth will continue next year – albeit at a slower pace than in 2009, with property prices finishing the year between 2pc and 4pc higher than today. It will also predict that by the end of 2012, house prices will be around 15pc higher than today.
Estate agents are claiming they have seen the boost from disposable income and low rates, but there’s not much to see what could drive prices much higher in 2010.
Its unlikely that we will see the scale of house price declines as in recent years though.
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