Do the recent upbeat figures reported by Persimmon and more recently Bovis mean that the UK housing market sector is starting to turn the corner?
Bovis believe that their pretax profit will meet their expectations. Persimmon has also managed to reduce its debt during 2009 and also saw more completions on property during the latter half of the year. The Property Analysts are finding it hard to predict what 2010 will bring for UK house prices, some predicting a modest increase whilst others think it will dip slightly. It’s a hard one to call. There are a lot of dependencies. To get the market going again there needs to be more flexibility in the mortgage market to allow access to more deals. Most people wanting to buy UK property now understand they require a larger deposit, however it is still not putting them off buying. Not only this, but there are other factors namely unemployment. If it rises too much then it could force prices downwards.
However, probably the biggest unknown will be the winner of the 2010 UK General Election. Each party have their own ideas to keep the momentum not only in the overall UK economy, but also specific housing market policies. It will be interesting to see whether Home Information Packs (HIPs), seen by some commentators as one of the causes of a stagnant market, remain in place by the end of 2010.
