UK house prices set for months of decline with warning of more problems ahead
Letting and estate agents signs outside flats on the Old Kent Road in London
PA
UK house prices look set to decline well into next year, an expert has warned.
The property market has been taking a hammering with rapidly rising mortgage rates putting additional pressures on homeowners.
Housing demand and prices have since fallen across the UK, with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors revealing its house price balance fell to minus 46 last month.
The figure stood at minus 30 in May in a drop which constitutes its second-lowest index reading since April 2009.
A view of houses in north LondonPAHowever, the pain is expected to last sometime longer in a further blow to the housing market.
Gabriella Dickens, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, predicted “affordability will worsen further over the coming months”.
She added: “House prices will stabilise until they have fallen about 10 per cent from their peak, with the low point probably not coming until early next year.”
UK house prices have already fallen in recent months.
Stack of pound coins with mini houses
PAThe average figure fell by £11,500 from its high last August to £262,200 in June, data released by mortgage provider Nationwide has revealed.
The most recent price fall is heavily connected with increasing interest rates.
The Bank of England hiked interest rates last month by 0.5 per cent, leaving the base rate at five per cent.
Interest rates were increasing by 0.25 per cent increments January 2022.
The Bank of EnglandPAThe Bank of England has brought in thirteen consecutive increases as it tries to cut inflation.
The consumer price index stood at 8.7 per cent in May, unchanged from April.
The figure peaked at 11.1 per cent in October last year.
Rishi Sunak has vowed to halve inflation to around five per cent by the end of the year.
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