Survey indicates drop in worries about affordability

March 26, 2024 by Brendan O'Neill

Surveys and Statistics

A new survey looking into the UK housing market has found that worries about the affordability of mortgages among the general public are falling, thanks to interest rates starting to become more settled.

The current Building Societies Association property tracker shows that the number of people who already have a mortgage and are concerned about their ability to make payments has gone down. That is not the only good news that this survey has uncovered, though. It found that the number of people who think that the cost of a mortgage could prevent them from buying has fallen too.

The percentage of people who said that they were not confident or not very confident in their ability to make their mortgage payments for the next half year was just 9%. The last time that this survey was conducted, in the early autumn of last year, that figure stood at 12%.

When it comes to prospective buyers, mortgage affordability is still cited as the greatest issue, but by a smaller percentage. This time round it stood at 62%, whereas in September last year it was 71%, indicating that this concern is also diminishing.

That appears to be true of the other cited barriers to buying too. Just 12% said that future price falls were a worry, compared with 18% in the survey from six months ago.

Those who have done the CeMAP mortgage advisor course will likely regard these results as further evidence that the property market in the UK is starting to bounce back.