Of course, this all sounds incredibly dramatic and appears to have come right out of the blue, but this price drop has been expected by many property experts for a long time now – due to two years of inflated house prices post-pandemic.
However, despite the price crash being anticipated, the market has become more volatile than experts predicted due to the cost of living crisis and other similar factors.
Alongside this, many experts are also forecasting a further decline in 2023. For example, Lloyds, the UK’s largest mortgage lender, expects prices to fall by 8% this year.
This may seem slightly troubling, as if this happens, it could risk putting newer investors into negative equity, especially if prices fail to recover some time.
However, such a fall is not expected to completely erase the increase in house prices seen in the last year (the most recent House Price Index shows the average property price increase by 10.3% in the year to November to £294,910).