New data released from leading UK mortgage providers indicates that people are making the big move in greater numbers than since the months preceding the financial crash at the end of the last decade.
Records provided by Lloyds bank show that more than 350,000 households are moving home right now. This is 2 per cent up on the same period last year. The increase is attributed to a combination of low mortgage rates and high demand.
There is a financial cost to pay for jumping into the house-buying scene right now. The average house price for those moving from one owned property to another now stands at just under £297,000, which is an increase of £6,000 since last year.
The cost of a house move can be daunting
According to Oliver Parsons of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, there is a housing affordability crisis in cities such as London.
Moving is costing people huge sums of money. House movers have to find deposits of over £100,000 for a first-time purchase. In London, this figure is usually doubled.
It’s not surprising that people are looking to save money on a house move and turning to a Man and Van slough service such as https://www.uk-tdl.com/man-van.html to get them into their new home at minimal cost.
Bad news for renters
These figures will not make happy reading for those who are renting and hoping to get onto the property ladder as they will have to meet the rising deposit demands.
Landlords are being hit, too, with a survey by the National Landlords Association reporting that one in five landlords is planning on selling their portfolio soon. This has been triggered by changes to legislation, such as the reduction in tax relief. Prior to the sales, the rents at these properties is likely to increase as landlords struggle to break even.
Paying higher rates is going to make it hard for tenants to save a big enough deposit to buy their own home. However, this is not just bad news for those aspiring to climb the property ladder. It has long been known that first-time buyers are the lifeblood of the housing market. The unease in the private rented sector will have a knock-on effect on new buyers and ultimately on the market as a whole.