Housing market starts moving again

UK property market re-opens

The UK housing market has experienced extraordinary levels of activity since it re-opened, bringing positive changes for homemovers.

Asking prices rise

Rightmove published its latest House Price Index earlier this week and found that the housing market is not only moving, but making some positive inroads to getting back to where we were pre-covid.

With property asking prices up 1.9% compared to March before the UK housing market was put on hold, coupled with the huge rise in demand, it certainly seems like a great time to sell your home.

Surveyors start catching up

At the beginning of lockdown surveyors could only carry out desktop valuations (market data is used to estimate a property’s value), which resulted in many mortgage products being pulled, especially for clients with lower deposits.

Now that surveyors can physically inspect properties, they are starting to catch-up on the backlog and many mortgage lenders are coming back, which is a real positive sign that the market is starting to recover.

95% mortgages return

Several mortgage lenders have started to bring back their 90% LTV mortgage ranges and in the past few days, we have also seen the return of some 95% LTV mortgage products, which is a huge boost for first time buyers!

To ensure lenders can maintain their services levels, there are however some restrictions in terms of availability and the number of applications that can be accepted. But, as they continue to work through their valuation pipelines, we can certainly expect the number of products available to increase.

Need mortgage advice?

If you are looking to buy a new property or simply switch to a better deal and are interested in discussing your mortgage options, please get in touch for a free, no obligation chat with one of our friendly advisers who will be more than happy to help!