Traditionally, March has been the prime selling month for the UK housing market. It is the start of a perfect window of warmer weather, with enough time before the summer. Usually, house prices and competition are at their peak in March. At this time, an RICS survey offered some encouraging news. Their results found a three-year high for on-sale properties. It also uncovered a positive increase in buyer inquiries for consecutive months.
Image by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi from Pixabay
While still in recovery mode, the UK housing market does look to be on the up. Swindon certainly isn’t immune to the recovery. In fact, as shown late last year, Swindon has a particularly lively housing market. Luckily for locals, more housing is well on its way. To kick off the year, more plots were announced for Swindon. Still, other elements are contributing to the market not being near its peak.
Mortgage rates remain a hurdle
Deposit requirements for mortgages are usually the main hurdle for home buyers. This is particularly true of first-time buyers. Some government schemes have eased this in the past. For now, though, mortgage rates are seen as the main hurdle. In February, the inflation rate dipped to 3.4 per cent.
Yet, higher mortgage rates are still in place. This is what’s seen as being the main problem for affordability for prospective buyers. High mortgage rates will always be off-putting. People don’t want to have to pay off an exceedingly large amount. It also plays into fears of house repossession. It takes three months of missed mortgage payments for a bank to commence repossession.
Still, there are ways to try to stop repossession of your home. Talking to the lender and finding an alternate repayment plan can help to avoid it. For most of us, though, avoiding the potential for repossession entirely is the goal. As such, people will avoid high and fluctuating mortgage prices. Housing market health tends to reflect house prices. Higher house prices mean larger mortgages are needed.
Swindon to get more houses
In January, it was reported that Swindon house prices went down. The average house price went down by 2.5 per cent from a year prior. This could be seen as a cooled market or that prices are resetting to being more affordable. Of course, what hasn’t helped is the influx of London competition. Towards the end of last year, it was reported that Swindon was among the most popular postcodes for people from the capital to buy property.
With an average house price of £260,000, this makes sense. That same price might buy little more than a flat in and around London. Londoners making their way to the surrounding areas increases the competition for locals trying to buy. What may ease this and help to keep affordability in Swindon is its new builds. In December, Kingsdown was revealed as the new plot for 1,552 homes. In January, another 759 were announced for builder Vistry.
The UK housing market looks to be recovering. For Swindon and people looking to buy in Swindon, prices might be kept in check, somewhat, by the new builds.
