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Trends in 2024

Journalist: Jake Carter, Mortgage Introducer

ended 25. November 2023

What area of the market are you expecting to be popular in 2024? Why is this? How will you cater to this demand?

What key trends in the wider mortgage market are you expecting to see next year? How will these impact the market?

In an ideal world, what would you like to see from the housing market next year?

8 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Darryl Dhoffer
Founder at The Mortgage Geezer
Despite the challenging headwinds first-time buyers are expected to remain active in 2024, driven by a desire to own property. Lenders will need to cater for this demand by offering competitive rates and products tailored to first-time buyers. With house prices in major cities becoming increasingly unaffordable, many buyers will look to regional markets in search of more affordable homes. Lenders can cater to this demand by expanding their presence in regional areas and developing products specific to regional markets. Trends for 2024, are an expectation of elevated interest rates that we see today, with lenders managing their risk appetite. Lenders focus even more on technology to streamline mortgage processing and differentiate themselves in a competitive market.
For ideal market conditions, we need to see stable interest rates, to provide certainty for borrowers and lenders and increased affordable housing supply to help moderate house price growth.
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Chris Barry
Director at Thomas Legal
The minibudget in Autumn 2023 has provided millions of people with pay rises above inflation which will fuel the current wage spiral and, with rising housing costs, mean inflation is unlikely to reduce in line with original expectations.

With inflation unlikely to reduce throughout 2024, the BOE base rate is unlikely to reduce, forcing borrowers to rethink their next move.

Most agents outside London are seeing high stock levels and the reason average house prices aren't coming down is that lower-value mass-market properties aren't shifting whereas the higher-value, lower-volume, properties are selling.

The higher end of the market typically consists of those with larger deposits meaning they have access to the lowest rates and the lower end of the market are typically first-time buyers or investors. First-time buyers are struggling to afford mortgages with 5 or 10% deposits and investors are struggling to find residential property with a return greater than cash in the bank.

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Kundan Bhaduri
Property Developer and Portfolio Landlord at The Kushman Group
From a landlord and property developer’s point of view, the opportunity to convert houses into two flats will become a game changing proposition for most small developers. This will improve the housing stock availability and will also increase the potential value of such properties. Outside of this, reduction in interest rates will boost the home buyer’s market. We were also expecting a cut to the stamp duty rates but that didn’t materialise in the Autumn Statement and rumour has it that there will be an announcement in February around stamp duty cuts. Either way, there will continue to be a lot many more distressed sellers as more people’s fixed rates come to an end in 2024, so there will be plenty of opportunity for the entrepreneurial minded to pick up amazingly attractive deals at subdued prices. This will however cause somewhat of a downward pressure in house prices.
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Peter Stamford
Mortgage Expert at Stamford Home Finance
I'm hoping to see an increase in the First Time Buyers market. Conditions have become much less favourable for amateur landlords, who might decide to cash out over the next 12 months. This would increase available entry-level housing, couple this with the Autumn Budgets' big increase in minimum and living wages, could allow frugal families the chance to save for that deposit.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
In 2024 we expect to see an initial bump in activity as the usual New Years Resolution first-time-buyers come out in force and landlords finally give up on the Buy to Let market due to the mounting pressures that these owners have been suffering from since 2015 bringing more property stock to market. Shared Ownership interest is growing, and we expect this to continue at pace, as the obvious replacement to, the now defunct, government Help to Buy scheme. Our New Years Resolution is for the Housing Minister to get to grips with Housing Associations that have onerous conditions in their lease terms that are unacceptable in 2024 - Draconian behaviour springs to mind from these government-backed organisations.
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Clive Read
Owner at Goldmanread
We expect to see an unfreezing of the property market next year, as the "new normal" of realistic mortgage rates starts to be accepted. Many actual and potential homeowners were put off by the sudden shock increase in interest rates during 2023. Caught like rabbits in the headlight they have placed all of their faith in a return to the period of historically low rates enjoyed over the last 10+ years. It's clear we're not going back to mortgage rates of 2-3%, as the Governor of the Bank of England has made abundantly clear. With mortgage rates now returning to a more stable footing this should start to build confidence again. The main thing is that the authorities maintain this stability whilst at the same encouraging building and development to increase the supply side of the housing market. Ultimately the only way out of the current housing crisis is a large increase in the number of properties coming on to the market.
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Charles Breen
Founder at C B
Overall the trend we are predicting is a further decrease in interest rates over the next 12 months helping to awaken the housing market from its Rip Van Winkle phase of stasis.
We are predicting a strong increase in first time buyers returning to the market, with house prices reducing slightly over the past 18 months and interest rates creeping down this will encourage first time buyers to take the plunge and start the journey to home ownership, especially with ever increasing rents, home ownership now is looking like the cheaper more stable option again.
We are also predicting a lot of debt consolidation over the next year due to the cost of living crisis and people spreading this burden on an increased level of debt over the last 2 years, with rates continuing to track down this will make consolidation the more attractive option and a much better option.
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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
2024 will be a world of new purchases. 2023 ended with landlords selling low value properties and repossessions in the resi market. This will mean lots of low-value or well-priced family homes available for market 2024. We will see a lot of FTB's and 2nd time movers looking into auctions too.