Squeeze on home buyers’ budgets set to continue into 2024, say experts

Home buyers’ squeezed budgets will continue to cast a shadow on property purchases in 2024, but some experts predict the market will have “bottomed out” by the summer.

Elevated mortgage rates and the wider cost-of-living squeeze are expected to maintain their pressure on the market.

But potential cuts to interest rates at some point, as well as lower house prices in some locations, could provide some house hunters with new opportunities in the year ahead.

Lucian Cook, head of residential research at estate agent Savills said: “We anticipate 2024 to be marked by continued constraints on buyers’ budgets.

“But the prospect of interest rate cuts towards the end of the next year means we expect the market to have bottomed out by the summer, even if the prospect of a