News & insights
2022 property market forecast – still busy…but not quite so manic!
As an unprecedented year draws to a
close, with the highest annual volume of sales and purchases since 2007,
conveyancers and other property professionals may be breathing a sigh of relief
and looking forward to a well-earned rest.
But what will the property market look
like in 2022? With the threat of Omicron looming, and the first interest rate
rise in three years thanks to soaring inflation, there are lots of factors at
play.
In spite of these challenges, we head into
the new year with a robust housing market – according to Halifax, UK house
prices rose by 3.4 per cent in the three months to the end of November 2021,
the highest quarterly rate since 2006.
Predictions for the next 12 months vary
depending on who you talk to, but there appears to be a broad consensus that
while the market will remain busy it probably won’t be quite as hectic as it
has been over the last 18 months.
Online portal Right Move forecasts prices
to rise by a further five per cent in 2022 but says that stretched buyer
affordability and an increase in housing stock will take the heat out of the
market.
It points to evidence of a traditional
December dip – with the average asking price of a home falling by 0.7 per cent
– as a key indicator that the market is already returning to more typical
conditions.
Others are more cautious in their
predictions – estate agents Savills forecasts rises of 3.5 per cent over 2022,
online portal Zoopla 3 per cent, while a fall of 1.4 per cent was predicted by
Oxford Economics. The average (median) prediction is of 1.4 per cent growth in
2022, according to the Treasury.
The Bank of England interest rate rise of
0.25 per cent is likely to further slow the pace of sales and attendant price
rises, because of the squeeze on spending power. It will have a knock-on effect
on mortgage rates which have been so historically low for so long. The increase
to 0.25% from 0.1% may have come earlier than initially expected but is not
altogether surprising, with experts predicting rates will continue to rise
through 2022.
There are, of course, regional variations
with many predicting the gap between property prices in the north and south to
shrink over time. Zoopla predicts the biggest price hikes next year will be in
the North West where house prices are increasing exponentially – places like
Blackburn and Rochdale are expected to rise by 10 per cent. While London will
see much slower growth of around two per cent.
One thing the experts do agree on is that
we’re likely to see a continued desire from people to change where they live -
the pandemic continues to prompt many to re-evaluate what they want from their
homes in the wake of the new style of hybrid working.
And it seems that many have made a New
Year’s Resolution to up sticks. According to a Zoopla survey, 22 per cent of
households remain eager to move in the next 18 months as a direct result of
pandemic. The latest Right Move data backs this up – it shows that valuation
requests from homeowners to estate agents are 19 per cent up on this time a
year ago.
The Government’s new version of the Help
to Buy equity loan scheme, for the moment expected to run until March 2023,
will also continue to prop up the market by giving first-time buyers struggling
to get on the property ladder a 5 per cent deposit.