Filtered by Subscriptions: UK Housing Use setting UK Housing
Overview – A fall in mortgage rates from 4.5% now to around 3.6% in late 2025 may mean that, despite increases in taxes in the Budget on 30 th October, house prices rise by 5.0% in 2025 rather than the consensus forecast of 2.5-3.0%. By allowing the …
22nd October 2024
Overview – We are not expecting the planned fiscal policies of the government to derail the economy – we expect GDP to grow by 1.0% this year and by a decent 1.5% in both 2025 and 2026. Instead, the main influence of the government’s plans to raise public …
1st October 2024
Overview – House prices will probably remain flat for the rest of 2024, but lower mortgage rates will provide scope for prices to beat expectations next year. Indeed, our forecast that Bank Rate will be lowered by more than investors anticipate suggests …
22nd July 2024
Overview – The next government, which the polls ahead of the election on 4 th July suggest will be a Labour one, will benefit from a combination of lower inflation, lower interest rates and faster economic growth than most are expecting. We think that a …
25th June 2024
Overview – After having been too high for the past three years, inflation in the UK will be too low for the next three years, and much lower than in the US and the euro-zone. Not only do we think that CPI inflation will fall from 3.4% in February to below …
25th March 2024
Overview – A slight rise in mortgage rates since the start of the year is likely to mean house prices stall in the near term. But our forecast that Bank Rate will be cut faster than most expect, to 3.00% by the end of 2025, suggests that further …
15th March 2024
Overview – With higher interest rates taking longer to percolate through the economy, we now think the recession will be shallower and GDP growth will stay weak throughout all of 2024. It’s a softer landing for the economy, but the runway is longer. And …
5th December 2023
Overview – Surprisingly resilient demand, high inflation, and limited supply mean a severe drop in house prices will be avoided. With the peak in mortgage rates now behind us and the labour market in good shape, there is no clear trigger for another …
21st November 2023
Overview – A slower fall in core inflation than in the US or the euro-zone will mean that the Bank of England keeps interest rates on hold at the probable peak of 5.50% for longer than the US Fed or the ECB. But our non-consensus forecast that higher …
18th September 2023
Overview – Our forecast that the Bank of England won’t start cutting interest rates until the second half of 2024 means mortgage rates are likely to stay between 5.5% and 6.0% for the next 12 months. That will price many buyers out of the market, and …
4th August 2023
Note: We’ll be discussing the UK’s economic, housing market and policy outlook in light of the BoE’s June rate decision in an online briefing on 22nd June at 10:00 EDT/15:00 BST . Register now . Overview – As the UK’s recent problem of higher inflation …
19th June 2023
Overview – While house price declines have slowed and economic activity has proven more resilient than expected over the three months since our last Outlook , we are sticking to our forecast that house prices will fall by 12% in total. Persistent core …
26th April 2023
While CPI inflation will fall from 10.4% to around 3.5% this year, we think a recession involving a peak-to-trough fall in real GDP of around 1.0% is needed to ensure that domestic price pressures weaken to levels consistent with the 2.0% inflation …
28th March 2023
Overview – 2023 will be the most difficult year for the housing market since 2008. Mortgage rates remain very high by the standards of recent years and can’t drop materially until the Bank of England shifts from raising interest rates to cutting them. …
26th January 2023
Overview – 2023 will be a tough year for the economy as the effects of the previous rises in inflation and previous hikes in interest rates (as well as a future rise from 3.00% now to a peak of 4.50% in early 2023) are felt. Our view that inflation and …
7th December 2022
Overview – The jump in market interest rates following the ill-advised “mini” budget has forced quoted mortgage rates up to over 5%, a level not seen since 2009. That will turn the slowdown in demand already evident in the survey data into a collapse, as …
31st October 2022
Overview – The drag on the economy from CPI inflation being stuck at 10% for a year and interest rates rising to 5.00% will be enough to trigger a recession that involves real GDP declining by around 2.0% from its peak to its trough. What’s more, …
20th October 2022
Overview – Tight supply has supported house prices so far, but they now appear to be stalling. Demand will only deteriorate further over the coming quarters as rising mortgage rates, high inflation, and the recession weigh on buyers’ budgets and …
12th August 2022
Overview – A rise in CPI inflation from the 40-year high of 9.1% in May to a peak of 12% or higher in October will reduce real incomes by enough to mean that a recession now seems inevitable. Our forecast that real household disposable income will fall by …
18th July 2022
Overview – If we are right that the Bank of England will have to raise interest rates to 3.00% to stamp out inflation then we are on the cusp of the fastest increase in mortgage rates since the late 1980s. That caused house prices to fall by 20%. But the …
13th May 2022
Overview – Even though a further surge in CPI inflation to a 40-year high of 10% in October will take the economy to the brink of recession, we think the Bank of England will raise interest rates from 0.75% now to a peak of 3.00% in 2023 to contain …
26th April 2022
Overview – It is likely to take longer than most expect for rising interest rates to cool the housing market. Mortgage rates have only just begun to rise from the record low reached in November, and limited supply, high household savings, and the boost to …
4th February 2022
Overview – Although the hit to households’ real incomes from a bigger surge in CPI inflation than most expect (to a peak of almost 7% in April) explains why we think GDP growth will be slower this year than the consensus forecast, we still think that the …
17th January 2022
Overview – We think it will take longer than most others expect for rising interest rates to bring down the curtain on the COVID-19 house price boom. A large stock of household savings, the ongoing adjustment to home working and very limited stock on the …
8th November 2021
Overview – The UK economy is experiencing a taste of stagflation. This won’t be anywhere near as severe or as persistent as in the 1970s. But for the next six months, the worsening product and labour shortages will put the brakes on the economic recovery …
19th October 2021
Overview – There are already signs that the end of the stamp duty holiday will take some heat out of the housing market, with house price inflation set to cool from 10% to 7% by the end of the year. But as we think that the tax break was just one of …
2nd August 2021
Overview – Our forecast that COVID-19 won’t significantly reduce potential supply means that the economy can run a bit hotter for longer without generating the persistent rise in inflation that would require monetary policy to be tightened. Admittedly, …
20th July 2021
Overview – House price growth is on track to reach double figures in the summer before cooling as the stamp duty holiday ends. But with mortgage rates very low, the economy recovering rapidly and households still sitting on a large stock of savings built …
14th May 2021
Overview – While we think the reopening of the economy and the vaccine rollout will allow GDP to return to its pre-pandemic level a bit earlier than most forecasters, the big difference between us and the consensus is that we don’t think the pandemic will …
15th April 2021
Overview – Rising unemployment and the withdrawal of the raft of policies that supported the housing market in 2020 means that the pandemic will finally take its toll this year. The end of the stamp duty holiday will cause transactions to slump at the …
27th January 2021
Overview – Our view that the economy will return to its pre-pandemic size in Q1 2022 and that it won’t be permanently smaller due to the pandemic is a more optimistic take than that of most forecasters. It implies that the government doesn’t need to …
19th January 2021
Overview – The post-lockdown recovery in house price growth and housing market activity has exceeded expectations. But the economy will act as a drag on the housing market in the coming months, while pent-up demand will soon be expended and the stamp duty …
27th October 2020
Overview – The new COVID-19 restrictions will put the economic recovery on ice for the next few months and will prevent the economy from climbing back to its pre-crisis level until the end of 2022. The possibility of even tighter COVID-19 restrictions and …
13th October 2020
Overview – Lockdown slammed the brakes on activity and house price growth, but policy interventions have cushioned the blow for housing. As a result, our initial fears of a house price collapse have waned. That said, we still expect house prices to fall …
23rd July 2020
Overview – The combination of a large share of the UK’s GDP being generated by the sectors that are hampered the most by social distancing and the drag from the uncertainty caused by Brexit means the UK economy will probably continue to lag behind its …
20th July 2020
Overview – The housing market will take a deep hit from the coronavirus. We expect housing transactions and housebuilding to drop by 70% in Q2 this year, as physical distancing measures halt activity. Meanwhile, house prices will see the biggest fall …
28th April 2020
Overview – We think it will take the economy a few years to recover from an unprecedented hit to GDP of around 25% triggered by the lockdown implemented to contain the coronavirus. That’s because despite the unparalleled speed and size of the monetary and …
16th April 2020
Overview – We think the economy has turned a corner and that GDP growth will beat the consensus forecast by accelerating from 1.0% this year to 1.8% next year. Of course, the lingering uncertainty over the UK’s future relationship with the EU will hold …
28th January 2020
Overview – While the decisive election result could lead to a modest increase in housing demand over the next couple of years, we doubt that this will translate into a substantive pick-up in transactions or house prices. Indeed, any improvement in …
23rd January 2020
Overview – Regardless of what happens with Brexit in the months ahead, a revival in the owner occupier housing market is unlikely. Even if a Brexit deal is agreed soon, we expect to see only a small improvement in housing market transactions and house …
24th October 2019
Overview – Regardless of what happens with Brexit between now and 31 st October, the recent weakening in both the global and domestic data has led us to revise down our GDP growth forecasts in all three of our scenarios based on different Brexit outcomes …
14th October 2019
Overview – Regardless of the Brexit outcome, we don’t expect a rebound in either house prices or transactions in 2019. Rather, there is hope of a modest improvement in housing market activity in both 2020 and 2021, assuming a no-deal Brexit is avoided in …
22nd July 2019
Overview – As Brexit could dramatically alter the near-term outlook for the economy, we are continuing to publish three sets of forecasts based on different Brexit outcomes (deal, no deal and more delays). But there are three common themes to this …
16th July 2019
