Property Press Online

Property prices in the UK have fallen 0.3% according to the latest research by mortgage lender, Nationwide.

The research, taken from Nationwide’s House Price Index, also indicates that property market ‘mini boom’ of 2020, may not be set to continue. Market growth for January was down 0.9% on December.

Coincidentally, figures released by The Office of National Statistics also support the downward trend, with GDP estimated to have fallen by 2.6% month-on-month in November. A decline that’s occurring right across the Eurozone, according to reports from the EU data source, Eurostat. The numbers suggesting that between October and December last year, the Eurozone economy has shrank 0.7%!

Commenting on the issue, Jonathan Christie, Co-Founder of Property Press Online, said: “We did expect a fall in both prices and the market come 2021. Although, it was expected that the initial fall would be mostly caused by a drop in demand, with the Stamp Duty Holiday coming to an end in March.

“If the government were to extend the holiday, we’d expect to see the market remain stable for a short while longer. Although, that’s not to say the situation will change. Come the end of any extension and it’s likely we’d see the market follow a similar downwards trajectory.

“However, if what the data suggests is a sign of thing to come for GDP, I fear the economic effects of the pandemic could be a lot more sudden than we first thought.”

Any extension to the Stamp Duty Holiday is yet to be confirmed. After a petition on the Government website reaching over 140,000 signatures, the issue was debated by select members of parliament on February 1^st. The answer is expected to come in Rishi Sunak’s budget on March 3^rd.

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