Abacus Daily Debt News

Housing market ‘will be held back’ by lack of mortgages

Despite improvements in property prices, the housing market will continue to be held back by a lack of finance, it has been claimed.

Lucian Cook, director of residential research at Savills, noted that many people will be looking to buy a home, as it may work out cheaper than renting.

But the market will be "constrained" by a restriction on the amount of mortgages approved, she said.

Ms Cook explained that only the people who have a lot of equity in their homes or have a large amount of cash will be able to obtain loans.

"The limitation is the number of people who are able to access the mortgage market and take advantage of that," she commented.

It comes after data from Hometrack showed that the average UK property price has declined by approximately ten per cent over the past year.

This took average values down to £155,600, the report found.

By Jamie Price