House price falls are imminent as soaring mortgage rates and spiralling living costs finally catch up with the housing market, experts have warned.
The crunch point will hit at the end of this year and bring a year-long downturn in 2023, with prices falling by 4pc, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, an analytics firm.
But the hit could be far worse if the looming recession brings soaring unemployment, while ever-increasing inflation pushes the Bank of England to continue raising interest rates.
Andrew Wishart, of Capital Economics, a research firm, said: “The historical record shows that increases in interest rates of the scale that we are seeing now are always a precursor of house price falls.”
Capital Economics has forecast a two-year property market downturn, with price falls of between 5pc and 10pc by the end of 2024.
Whatever happens, the blow will be unequal – with certain areas and parts of the market hit far worse than others.