Rightmove forecasts 'normal' housing market in 2022
The United Kingdom's leading property website Rightmove today predicted a closer to normal though still busy market in 2022. The country’s largest online real estate portal indicated that the property industry will still be busy, with strong buyer demand carrying forward into next year and a rebound in the number of homeowners apparently getting ready to sell.
The website also pointed out that house prices will rise by 5% next year on a national level. However, it believes that “some of the edge will be taken off sellers’ pricing power” by increasingly stretched buyer affordability and a better choice of properties for sale.
One sign of a return to traditional norms is the continuation of the seasonal fall in the price of property coming to market, down by 0.7% (-£2,234) on the month, compared to a 0.6% fall this time a year ago. “This would be particularly timely, as fully available stock for sale has hit a new record low again this month. Promisingly, requests from home-owners to estate agents to have their home valued are 19% up on this time a year ago, indicating that much-needed buyer choice will be coming to market in the new year”, Rightmove said in a statement.
UK Finance, the trade association for the UK banking and financial services sector, also pointed out that 2020 was set to be a record year for mortgage lending. Banks will lend £316 billion against houses this year, up 31% on 2020 levels. House purchases are set to hit 1.5 million this year, up 47% on last year and the highest annual total since before the 2008 financial crisis.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s Director of Property Data, comments: “The kind of frenzied market we’ve seen in the last 18 months happens only a few times in most home-owners’ buying and selling lifetimes, exacerbated by the even rarer event of a global pandemic pushing homes higher up most people’s priorities. While the pandemic is still having an ever-changing impact on society as we head into the new year, we expect a housing market moving closer to normal during the course of 2022.
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