Halifax warns that a housing market cool down will hit this year and they predict that house prices will fall by 8%.

However despite this house prices will still remain higher than before the pandemic and sellers are being advised that it could take longer to sell your home.

Halifax homes director Andrew Asaam said, “Such a fall would place the average property price back at roughly the level it was in April 2021, reversing only some of the gains made during the pandemic.”

Nationwide predicts that house prices could fall by around 5% in 2023 and the trade association UK Finance are saying they expect house sales will fall to around 1 million in 2023.

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Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla, said that despite the “shock” of mortgage rates soaring in autumn last year, “banks are well-capitalised and ready to lend.”

Donnell said, “Overall, 2023 may well confound the more gloomy forecasts made at a time when the outlook for mortgage rates looked much worse.”

Rightmove are expecting that the average asking price for new homes will be 2% lower by the end of 2023.

Rightmove’s Tim Bannister said, “Although the wider economic climate has settled a little leading into Christmas, there is no getting away from the fact that pressures on personal finances and mortgage rates stabilising at a higher rate will impact overall affordability in the market (in 2023).

“We think this will contribute to a 2% drop overall in new asking prices in the UK market.

“For context, this would only take average asking prices for new properties coming to market back towards where they were in February (2022).”

He added, “We expect there may be a stand-off on price between buyers and sellers, particularly in the early months of the year as the tone is set for the year ahead.

“Though many buyers will feel the pinch of stretched affordability and will try to negotiate hard for the home they want, sellers may not be in a rush to meet their expectations and will feel like they can hold out for the price they want, particularly if they don’t see much competition from other sellers in their area.”

Bannister continued, “We’re heading towards a better balance between supply and demand next year but we don’t expect a surge in forced sales, which would cause a glut of properties for sale and contribute to more significant price falls in 2023.

“There will be less urgency in the market as buyers wait for the right home to become available for their needs, leading to homes taking longer to sell, and we could see a return to the more normal time to find a buyer of around 60 days.”