UK property will be a buyers’ market in 2025, analysts predict
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‘Cautious optimism’ forecast despite end to key stamp duty relief and fears of higher taxes and interest rates. Experts have predicted a “buyer’s market” for house hunters in the year ahead, giving them greater negotiating power as the mood of the housing market shifts to “cautious optimism”.
However, even the more hopeful expectations for 2025 were met with caution, as an important stamp duty relief for first-time buyers was scheduled to end in the spring, as well as potentially high interest rates and taxes bearing down on the market. Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at the property company Hamptons, said: “As the end of 2024 approaches, the mood of the housing market has shifted from trepidation to cautious optimism.
“Lower mortgage rates have been the principal catalyst for change, falling much more rapidly than we had expected. House prices are moving upwards, reversing the declines of 2023. Yet, while the future direction of interest rates seems to have been mapped out, the pace of this journey and its ultimate destination remain uncertain.”.
Hamptons forecast house prices to rise by 3% across Britain in 2025, followed by 3.5% in 2026 and 2.5% in 2027 as the “affordability picture” improves. The new year could also mark the beginning of a “new housing cycle, when London starts to outperform the rest of the country”, as Hamptons’ housing market forecast predicts 4% price growth in London in the fourth quarter of 2025, outpacing the other regions for the first time since 2015.
