What’s in store for the property market in 2014?

Robin King, Director, Move with Us, the residential property group, shares his views on what's in store for the property market in 2014.

“Government incentives to purchase property, such as the Help to Buy scheme, will create a market where there is likely to be more buyers than sellers in 2014. Volumes of properties being sold will increase by around 20% as the Help to Buy scheme releases second time buyers that were previously trapped in their homes due to low or negative equity. This will bring more properties to the market, many of which will be suitable for first time buyers, creating more fluidity in the market.”

“We will see property prices increase, particularly in those regions where valuations are low such as the North East, and also where prices are high such as the South East, and in cities such as Cambridge, Bath and Oxford where we have already seen consistent rises throughout 2013.” 

 “There will be above inflation rate price rises but this will serve to make up for lost time as there hasn’t been any advancement on the property prices of 2007. Prices could increase by as much as 5-8% in areas where there’s a big lag such as the North East as the surplus of properties that have been sitting on the market for a long time are sold.”

 “The forecast for the property market is generally positive however wholly dependent on the banks’ ability to lend on mortgages.”