Property experts are telling landlords not to worry about stagnant home prices as the market will bounce back.
Although current comparative data shows house prices in London and the South are dropping off, two new sets of data offer some respite.
Analysts at Barclays Bank forecast house prices will go up by 6.1% by 2021.
In a new report, the bank explains that improving prosperity in the North of England will propel prices upwards.
Although 6.1% is the expected national average growth in property values, the regional figures show a 11.88% rise for London.
Dena Brumpton, chief executive officer of Wealth and Investments at Barclays, said: “It’s encouraging to see that property is still viewed as an important investment for high net worth investors who own three properties and over a quarter planning to buy property because they believe it offers long term investment security.”
Elsewhere, Hometrack, a property consultancy, has looked at house prices in 20 cities and concluded that although the rate of increases is slowing, most are still going up.
Average home prices in London are up 5.3% in the past year – which is around two-thirds of the 8.7% increase reported this time last year.
Hometrack predicts home prices will decline for the rest of the year and southern cities that have seen growth of 10% plus will see more rises, but in single digits.
“Outside the south, we anticipate prices will continue to increase over 2017 as households take advantage of record low mortgage rates and an improving economic outlook” said Richard Donnell, Insight Director at Hometrack.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) is even more optimistic about house prices.
The think-tank expects them to soar by 25% by 2021.
“Already towards the end of 2016 indicators pointed to a stabilisation in the housing market, a trend that has continued in the first months of 2017,” said Kay Neufeld a CEBR economist.
