We all want to know where the property market is heading during 2023 – and the answer is not where the doom mongers might predict.

In fact the property market could be coming to a road near you, your road, even your house.

The arrival of the Halifax House Price Index always causes a media stir. They love it when home prices are rising; they love it even more when prices take a dip. It’s a conversation based around the notional value of the average house but who is to say what that is in our neck of the woods?

The Halifax Index showed that prices started to dip towards the end of last year having risen by 11 per cent in 2021 and a further six per cent in the first eight months of 2022. By anyone’s reckoning that’s unsustainable. The lndex predicts prices will fall back to somewhere around their position at the end of 2021 so that’s still a substantial improvement over the end of 2020!

Experts say mortgage rates are already repairing rapidly from the disaster of the September mini Budget and there are now some attractive fixed rate deals. Remember that as the rate of home buying falls, and therefore fewer people need mortgages, lenders will have to offer even better rates by reducing their margins in order to satisfy savers who want to see some positive effect from the rise in Bank of England Base Rate.

Which?, formerly known as the Consumers’ Association, considers the Land Registry gives out the truer account of what’s happening in the housing market because it relies on sold prices rather than asking prices or mortgage lending. The problem is that the Land Registry is always slightly behind everyone else so we’ll have to wait for it to reveal trends.

In the meantime, Which? says we have all been looking at a distorted market thanks to post-pandemic panic and incentives such as the Stamp Duty holiday so in my view it’s natural to see some adjustment. The number of purchases has settled to around pre-pandemic levels and most of us will be happy with that.

Everyone is going to have to work a bit harder; estate agents will have to be more diligent in their search for buyers, lenders will have to offer attractive mortgages, and homeowners looking to sell must make sure their house is in order.

That last bit is about you, and it helps if it happens first so your home looks its best when potential buyers arrive. If you need advice on how to do it, just ask and we’ll be happy to help (although actually shifting the furniture and doing the cleaning is not what I have in mind!).

Colin Shairp,

Director, Fine and Country Southern Hampshire and Town and Country Southern estate agencies, Drayton.<