The need for lenders to ease their criteria for lending and homeowners to ask realistic selling prices is being called for from estate agents to ease the pains of the current housing market.  Experts have warned that there will not likely be a sure footing in recovery for the housing market next year and that at the best one can hope for a steady market versus a declining one.  Amidst some quiet rumors of possible interest rate hikes in the coming year it puts pressure on issues to be taken to assist the housing market to gain momentum toward growth.  Without a healthy housing market the entire economy will continue to struggle.

Kevin Maley, a partner at Strutt & Parker, remarked, “The outlook for 2013 as a whole remains cloudy and there is much scope for improvement. There is understandably a great deal of uncertainty and a real mixed bag of information in the public domain.

“For example, we have seen the Office for Budget Responsibility predict a rise in property prices for the forthcoming year. However, as I see it, there is likely to be little change owing in part to lenders' caution when handing out mortgages, buyers' worries about their jobs, and sellers' unwillingness to reduce asking prices.”

Lenders have been offering historically low interest rates as of late but those are reserved for borrowers with the best credit ratings.  All others are still finding it hard to meet the large deposit requirements for first time buyers.  This time last year there was a small boost in the market from first time buyers as a government backed tax holiday for first time buyers was reaching a close.  However, without incentives, tightened lending practices and unrealistic selling prices there is a shortage of first time buyers in the market, which could if there were more, produce some thawing of the currently frozen property ladder.