Falling

Higher borrowing rates and economic uncertainty are weakening the housing markets - with slight falls in prices, and a more significant decline in buyer ...

The better news for renters is that you can see build-to-rent blocks under constructions in cities, including a vast one, with 400 units, on the Broomielaw side of the Kingston Bridge in Glasgow. Halifax saw a peak of 13% and in the year to October, prices were up 8.8%. But they are businesses which invest in assets, and their cost of borrowing has been going up. Growing regulation of the private rented market has also made it more costly to rent out, and those who have depended on short-term lets, through platforms such as AirBnB, now face further hurdles to register with councils. Changes in the tax on owning a second home for rental have squeezed smaller-scale landlords. And what of the private rental market? The more reliable indexes across the UK are showing month-on-month falls in price during autumn. Around 80% of mortgage holders are on fixed rate mortgages, and are protected from such volatility - until they have to refinance. A normalisation of interest rates, from the low levels post-2008 financial crisis, was long overdue, though it didn't have to happen so sharply this year. Not so much a fall in prices as a fall in the number of transactions. For years, prices have been helped upwards by the shortage of supply coming into the market. John Boyle, an economist specialising in the private housing market with estate agency Rettie & Co, also foresees a 5% fall next year.