First-time buyers have gained importance on the property market in 2014 with their number increasing 14 per cent on the previous year, the latest data from LSL shows.
Government efforts have helped many people across the country to brave the climb onto the property ladder.
Adrian Gill, director of Reeds Rains and Your Move estate agents, commented that the second Help-to-Buy scheme ensured “that many potential buyers could still navigate around the stricter mortgage regulations and affordability checks, in the slipstream of higher LTV lending” and “the Chancellor’s remodelling of the age-old stamp duty barrier flooded the market with buoyed consumer confidence” towards the end of the year.
Total sales of completed houses grew 18 per cent annually last year, hitting the highest volume on record since 2007. While the first half of the year was definitely busier than the second, there was a strong finish to 2014 with home sales jumping 17 per cent on a monthly basis.
There was a small intermission in home price growth in December which slowed down the rise for the whole year as well. According to the LSL house price index, December prices remained stable on a monthly basis and grew by 9.6 per cent year-on-year.
In the year as a whole, remortgaging continued on a stable track while buy-to-let activity grew.
Looking ahead to 2015, the LSL pinpoints the things that could influence prices in the New Year:
⇒The outcome of the general election
⇒ All political parties have given high priority to housing and house building
⇒ A further relaxation of planning rules via the Starter Home Initiative
⇒ The possible introduction of a Mansion tax
⇒ The new annuity pension rules (in effect from April 2015) may result in an influx of buy-to-let landlords
⇒ The continued economic uncertainty outside of the UK and particularly the effect of low oil prices
⇒ A potential interest rate rise in late 2015
