Property values again, down -0.4% in December

Director of Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, commented:

“A combination of economic turbulence, increasing mortgage rates and a squeeze on household finances has been the perfect recipe for a reduction in the rate of house price growth and that’s what we’ve seen since the closing stages of last year.

When you also couple these factors with the usual seasonal slowdown that hits the market during December, it would have been more of a surprise had house prices continued to climb.

However, what’s important to note is that the rate of decline has been far more marginal than many predicted and this should stand the property market in very good stead for the year ahead.”

CEO of Alliance Fund, Iain Crawford, commented:

“The property market has gone through a transitional period, whereby buyers have had to reassess their purchasing power, while sellers have had to come to terms with this reduction and make the necessary adjustments to their asking price expectations.

This has caused house prices to fall gradually over the last few months, but there’s already signs that having found a new middle ground, the market has stabilised in 2023.”

Managing Director of Barrows and Forrester, James Forrester, commented:

“It’s been a long cold winter, with harsh economic headwinds battering the UK on all fronts, so it was only inevitable that they would breach the usually impervious walls of the UK property market at some point.

The good news is that while house prices have started to cool, the damage has been less severe than forecast and although we’re not out of the woods just yet, we can now see the sunlight through the trees.”