The housing market in the UK should see a significant improvement by 2015, according to a leading economist.
Speaking at the Financial Services Exhibition held at Old Billingsgate, Robert Gardner of Nationwide told a group of industry representatives that he is ‘confident of a stronger pace of recovery’ in the next few years, estimating that by 2015 the market should have greatly improved.
In terms of house price levels to date, Gardner said London was the only region where numbers were on the continued increase, with prices now 8 per cent higher in the capital than before the crash.
It’s a different story in the rest of the country, he pointed out, where housing is more affordable than it was pre-crisis.
According to Gardner rental growth prospects in the buy-to-let market are strong with activity and prices having picked up, regional variations withstanding.
With the much discussed help-to-buy scheme having been brought forward, Gardner believes it should help to provide an increase in supply as it will be in builders’ interests to supply houses to meet the demand the mortgage guarantee should bring.
In a later debate at the exhibition, Paul Kane of state-backed lender NatWest said that the bank was “paddling fast to get something out” following the unexpected earlier launch of help-to-buy, while representatives of Nationwide, Virgin Money and Precise each said they were considering whether to take part or not.
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