Homebuyers face crisis as property prices rocket

January 26, 2017 by Brendan O'Neill

House Prices

Experts have warned that house buyers could be facing a growing crisis, as house prices continue to soar.

Over the last year alone, house prices have risen by 6.5%, pushing the average house price to £222,484, according to the Halifax. House prices increased by 1.7% from November to December 2016, in comparison to a forecast of just 0.3%. Shelter has warned that many first-time buyers will struggle to buy a home, shattering their dreams, as a shortage of affordable properties and rising prices take effect.

Graeme Brown, the interim chief executive of Shelter, said:

“Our current system of housebuilding simply cannot deliver the homes we need. People are paying the price with expensive and unstable renting.”

The statement was supported by data released by Landbay, which demonstrated that the average monthly rent for homes outside London had reached £750. This is over half net monthly income for many people who live outside the nation’s capital.

The chief economist for Yorkshire Building Society, Andrew McPhillips, said that more properties must be built in the UK, to provide affordable homes and control price inflation. He also suggested that new regulations be introduced, to make it easier for home buyers, like making sellers pay Stamp Duty Tax as opposed to buyers.

The government has pledged to build more houses across the UK, while a white paper is due to be published outlining plans to improve the numbers of homes being built.

First time buyers may need expert advice from a mortgage adviser, who has studied on a CeMAP course to become fully qualified in this area.