An upward trajectory - Comment on the ONS HPI for November from Richard Pike at Phoebus Software

20 January 2021

Richard Pike, Phoebus Software sales and marketing director, says “The housing market has been on an upward trajectory ever since the first lockdown restrictions were eased and the stamp duty holiday was announced. The fact that a pandemic has been sweeping the world seems to have had little effect on peoples’ appetite to move or buy a new home. For many there is a genuine need to move, for example for better home working conditions or for basics such as gardens, which now have greater importance than they might have previously. The increase in house prices shows exactly how demand affects the market and, with the current lockdown undoubtedly having the same result it had in 2020, this is not likely to change in the near future.

“Unfortunately, as with most things, there are those that will benefit from the current market but there are also many that will be looking at the average house price and thinking ‘how on earth do we get onto the property ladder now?’ First-time buyers and those living in and around the capital will again, I fear, be the ones left behind. With the Stamp Duty holiday coming to an end, it is sensible to assume there will be a dip in prices at least in the short term, so it will be interesting to see how lenders’ risk appetites may be affected.”