Biggest annual fall in house prices in over 10 years
1st March 2023 09:47
by Myron Jobson from interactive investor
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interactive investor comments on the latest Nationwide House Price Index.
Commenting, Myron Jobson, Senior Personal Finance Analyst, interactive investor, says: “The biggest annual fall in house prices in over a decade marks a significant psychological shift in the housing market favouring buyers who have been waiting in the sidelines because they haven’t been able to make the numbers work.
“The recent fall in house prices suggests that we are the cusp of seeing the sales market handing back purchasing power to buyers. Sellers are already accepting huge discounts on asking prices, £14,000 on average - according to Halifax’s recent study of the property market since the start of the Covid pandemic - to get sales over the line as the property market cools down.
“There are growing signs of a pick-up in housing market activity in the spring months. While mortgage rates remain at levels not seen since the financial crisis, they have fallen back slightly in recent months as the reverberations from the ill-fated mini-budget on the mortgage marketplace subside. Mortgage lenders have seemingly engaged in a mortgage ‘price war’ since the start of the year following a dip in demand for home loans.
“But affordability remains an issue for many households, and the onslaught of heightened costs in April, with energy, council tax, broadband, mobile phone, water and sewage bills all set to rise, don’t help matters.”
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