Nottingham Housing Market Update 2020

How is the current crisis effecting the housing market?

Everyone has an opinion on the housing market, whether or not they work in the estate agency industry. Well, my experience over the last 25 years is that most predictions get it wrong. There seems to be a habit of talking down the market whether it be Brexit, a national vote or referendum or indeed a global pandemic. The past few decades show the market has its ups and downs but the general overall trend is the market goes up and prices go up in the long term.

With the country now in lockdown and many agents temporarily closing, it is almost impossible to get to view a house. Everything is on hold. Yet Rightmove are reporting a significant increase in traffic on its website. Why? Well it would seem there are some obvious factors. We are all at home and have access to the internet. Those of us that share a house with friends or relative, wish we had our own place, those of us with kids wish we had more space. Some wish they had less space and less would like to downsize, and some want to be closer to family. We would all love an independent income that an investment property provides.

The crisis, whilst terrible at the moment, will come to an end and when it does, the temporary halt on the market which has led to a build up of frustrated interest will boom.

Lets face it we have less to spend our money on. This could this mean people have the opportunity to save for a bigger deposit? The only thing that could change this is the mortgage market. The mortgage lenders appear to have suspended their deals at the moment, understandably so. But will this change when the crisis is over? It has never been cheaper to borrow, the bank of England base rate is at a record low, surely the lenders will take advantage of the current crisis and reboot their mortgage deals. We still do not have enough houses nationally and we are still not building enough to satisfy this demand.

So, despite everything and the doomsayers talking down the market, here’s my prediction. Once the current situation is finished there will be increased demand for property. Both residential and investment. Mortgage lenders will offer fantastic mortgage deals and people will want to move. So get looking, use this time to short list that ideal property and once the crisis is over get buying, prices are going to rise. There’s one thing to be sure, ‘We live in interesting times’.