UK Finance mortgage forecasts: Comment from Katie Pender, managing director of Target

11 December 2023

Katie Pender, managing director of Target, says: “While it’s worrying that the forecasts predict that mortgage lending will fall across the board in 2024, there’s some light at the end of the tunnel in that pressures on affordability look like they are peaking. In addition, although possessions are expected to increase next year, they would still be lower than in any year from 2019 all the way back to 1981. It will be interesting to see too whether borrowers will start to feel more confident now that mortgage interest rates are falling.

With a General Election likely next year though, borrowers will need to feel confident in the stability of the market after what has been a rocky period. To support both them and lenders, we must, as an industry, work hard to provide a service based on fast and reliable technology systems which put the customer first. This would then take us into 2025 on a good footing,