Property prices: What to expect - news and predictions | This is Money

Property prices: What to expect - news and predictions | This is Money

North vs South, cash rich and equity poor, young and old, loved and unloved postcode, the UK property market has fractured into a world of the haves and have-nots.

For the haves paper wealth is huge - for the have-nots ownind a decent property seems light years away or their mortgage is a dead weight slowly pushing them under.

Taking the temperature of a market as a whole, when it is so divided is tough but even in the best areas life is not so rosy.

Over optimistic sellers are pricing buyers out of the market, according to property website Rightmove.


Its latest report showed asking prices rising, but more properties left on the shelves as the gap between expectations and reality stretches.

Its downbeat outlook is not a patch of the gloomy forecast from investment consultancy CheckRisk, which suggests a perfect storm could send house prices down 20% this year.

It has warned its clients that rising interest rates and inflation, worsening job prospects, high levels of public and private debt and reduced mortgage lending will send prices tumbling.