After a turbulent number of years post-pandemic, the UK property market is beginning to show trends of steady improvement. As recently reported by Zoopla, the market is steadily regaining confidence, leading to buyers and sellers becoming less deterred by factors such as higher mortgage rates and the cost-of-living crisis. To understand how the UK property market will perform in 2024, we have analysed the impact of the key market factors. 

Rising Supply and Demand

A common trend in the UK property market over the past year is the rising levels of both supply and demand. According to Zoopla, there is a recorded growth of 11% in buyer demand. Meanwhile, a corresponding increase of 21% more homes being placed on the market, which indicates strong confidence amongst buyers and sellers. 

Mortgage rates are expected to remain consistent 

According to Rightmove, mortgage interest rates are currently between 5.1% to 5.5% on average. These rates are expected to remain within these figures for the remainder of 2024. Whilst this may affect homebuyers’ desire to buy, the market is in a calmer position to deal with these rates, which should lead to more people entering the market. 

Supply is likely to exceed demand 

There was a slight slowdown in the fall of house prices in the last year, which fell by 0.5% (Source Zoopla). As previously mentioned, both buyer and seller levels are increasing but not at a directly corresponding rate. Therefore, it suggests that the higher levels of houses for sale than homebuyers on the market will be a key trend for the property market in 2024, allowing homebuyers to be in a more competitive position to negotiate pricing. 

Capital gains tax cuts 

In the Spring budget, the UK government introduced a cut to the capital gains tax, which will take effect in April. This will see the top rate of capital gains tax decrease from 28% to 24%. As a result, we predict the cuts will incentivize more properties to enter the market in 2024 and further increase the competitiveness of sellers to price adequately to attract buyers. 

Pricing your property according to market value is key 

It will be crucial for sellers to initially price their properties at a competitive level to attract buyers’ attention. According to Rightmove, the timeframe for sellers to find a buyer has increased from 45 to 66 days YoY. This increase can be attributed to sellers initially entering the market at high prices and being forced to reduce during the marketing period to secure viewings. Therefore, it will be vital for sellers to price correctly initially to maximize interest from the outset. We discuss how to price your property correctly here. 

Conclusion 

The property market in the UK is continually showing signs of improvement and recovery, which is expected to continue in 2024. Buyers and Sellers are growing in confidence, and factors such as mortgage rates and the cost of living are having less of an impact on the property market than in the recent past. 

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