Nationwide building society expects house prices to fall 13.8 per cent this year as people delay home moves
Nationwide building society expects house prices to fall 13.8 per cent this year as people delay home moves.
The chief executive of Britain’s second largest mortgage lender said first-time buyers and those stepping up the ladder into their second home would be deterred from purchasing in the midst of a recession.
Joe Garner told The Mail on Sunday that he expected prices to bounce back after the dip. ‘We do think it is inevitable that there is some kind of recession, but over the long term, property prices have always trended upwards,’ he said.
Slowdown: Nationwide said first-time buyers and those stepping up the ladder into their second home would be deterred from purchasing in the midst of a recession
‘The home mover and the first-time buyer segments of the mortgage market are likely to be suppressed. We’ve taken some forecasts that are conservative compared to some.’
The building society is also predicting a 9.6 per cent decline in GDP, with unemployment rising to 7.4 per cent.
Nationwide’s internal research also found that some families were looking to move into larger homes after months of lockdown.
It said some were keen to move into homes with a garden or with extra space for a home office. Some wanted to buy properties closer to high street shops.
Garner said the Nationwide was seeing huge demand from customers looking to remortgage their homes following the base rate cut from the Bank of England.
It is also preparing for a surge in the number of customers looking for equity release products and retirement interest-only mortgages.