Housing shortages will dip even further in the New Year – expert warns

THE number of houses available for sale are likely to hit a record low in the New Year, an expert has warned.
Figures released earlier this week revealed levels had fallen to the lowest level on record with the sharp slowdown linked to fears over Omicron.
According to figures from Rightmove estate agents have an average of 14 properties on their books, half the level of a year ago, according to research from the online platform.
Now Jonathan Rolande, from the National Association of Property Buyers, predicts things are going to get even worse.
“We’ve
probably yet to see the worst of things in terms of availability,” he said. “The traditional trend of people logging on to check out houses on Boxing Day is likely to see many house-hunters met by a real lack of options.
“It’s likely that Covid will deter some buyers and there will be many more sellers who will not want people visiting their homes. It might also encourage tenants to stay put blocking many homes that might otherwise have been sold by landlords keen to exit whilst prices are high.
“This couldn’t have come at a worst time really and everyone in the industry will be hoping and praying that levels begin to rise again soon.”
Mr Rolande’s comments come in the wake of a statement by Rightmove which said levels had hit the lowest level since its records began in 2004.
“The kind of frenzied market we’ve seen in the last 18 months happens only a few times in most homeowners’ buying and selling lifetimes, exacerbated by the even rarer event of a global pandemic pushing homes higher up most people’s priorities,” said Tim Bannister,
Rightmove’s director of property data.
“While the pandemic is still having an ever-changing impact on society as we head into the new year, we expect a housing market moving closer to normal during the course of 2022.”
There are signs that supply of available housing could rise LATER IN THE YEAR. Requests from homeowners to estate agents to have their home valued have risen 19 per cent compared with a year ago, suggesting more properties will come to market in the new year.
Across Britain, the average asking price is £340,167, a fall of £2,234 compared with November, Rightmove said.
Asking prices for December are 6.3 per cent higher than a year ago and Rightmove predicts that they could rise by a further 5 per cent next year.
Increasingly stretched buyer affordability and a wider choice of properties for sale will take the edge off sellers’ “pricing power”, Rightmove said.
The property market has been on fire since the summer of last year when the Treasury said the first £500,000 of any property purchase would be tax-free. The stamp duty relief was extended until the end of June, when it was halved to £250,000. In October the threshold
returned to £125,000.
The market was further buoyed by the flight from city centres, with many people seeking larger properties with more outside space. The level of transactions has already surpassed last year’s and is close to the volume seen in 2007 before the global financial crisis
struck.
The average UK property changed hands at a record £272,992 in November, according to the Halifax house price index. The typical home is now almost £13,000 more expensive than it had been in June and has risen in value by £33,816 since the first lockdown in March last year.