The UK is on the brink of experiencing the slowest two-year mortgage growth in ten years, the EY Item Club has reported.
High interest rates coupled with restrained economic expansion are expected to dampen the enthusiasm of prospective homebuyers.
The economic forecasters at EY Item Club project net mortgage lending to increase by just 1.5% in 2023 and 2% in 2024.
These figures mark the most sluggish growth since the financial challenges of the early 2010s.
Nonetheless, there is an anticipation of a rebound in mortgage lending for 2024 and 2025, contingent on a continued decline in inflation, potential interest rate cuts from the Bank of England, and an overall improvement in housing affordability.
Despite this potential upturn, the expected growth of 2.8% for 2025 remains shy of the pre-pandemic average growth rate of 3% witnessed from 2015 to 2019.
