Residential property sales in the UK are forecast to remain steady across the country in 2017, estate agents have revealed.
With 2016 drawing to an end, a year of surprising political decisions and economic uncertainty, almost half of estate agents (43%) believe that prices will stay the same over the years to come, research from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has revealed.
The research finds that house price growth may stall and therefore first-time buyers will find it easier to make it onto the market.
The association thinks first-time buyers should be in a better spot to buy homes that need some work done on them in 2017, another year of possible ups-and-downs in the country’s political development.
Furthermore, the association also pointed out that the Government did a good job identifying policy holes and changing them to help the country build more homes. Nevertheless, there has still not been a significant increase in the number of properties being built.
“It would be an understatement to say this year has not gone as expected. However, the property market is mostly still feeling the effects of events which happened last year,” said Mark Hayward, NAEA managing director.
“The high end London property market is suffering at the hands of increased stamp duty taxes, and while Brexit uncertainty definitely hasn’t helped repair this, it’s not the sole reason why London’s more expensive properties aren’t being snapped up at the same speed they were,” he explained.
Next year, we expect it’ll be more of the same; there won’t be a property Armageddon, but things won’t get much better for first time buyers, and those looking to up or downsize.”
