September 23 2024
New research by Ready Steady Store has found that over half of homeowners in England are ‘put off’ moving house due to increasing mortgage rates, rising to 70% of homeowners in South England and 72% in North England.
To conduct this research, we surveyed 1,059 homeowners across England, which also revealed a further 57% of homeowners are put off moving house due to concerns over growing energy and living costs.
Interestingly, 45% of respondents advised they would have moved house within the next 2 years if mortgage rates and living costs weren’t a growing concern, with a further 25% revealing they would have considered a move.
Furthermore, 59% of respondents believe that current economic decline will lead to a housing market crash, with 71% of homeowners advising they would or would maybe consider alternative options for creating more space within their existing home as opposed to putting their house on the market.
This comes as new cuts to Stamp Duty have been announced, saving buyers an average of £2,500. However, following an increase in interest rates to 2.25%, a new 4% fixed rate deal for a mortgage of £250,000 will cost homeowners £3,840 more each year, equating to an extra £320 per month – far outweighing the benefit of the new Stamp Duty relief.
Other key take outs from the research include:
- An increase in space [57%], change in location [37%] and a bigger garden or outdoor space [33%] are the leading drivers for homeowners considering a move.
- In the South of England, only 30% of homeowners would still be happy to move house despite rising energy and living costs, compared to 26% in the North of England.
- 66% of homeowners across East and West Midlands are put off from moving house due to rising mortgage rates, compared to 70% in South England and 72% in North England.
- 40% of respondents would or would maybe consider moving their belongings into storage to create more space.
- 32% of homeowners believe it would cost £100 – £200 per month to store the contents of a three-bedroom house, with 28% believing it would cost £201 – £300.
This research comes as Rightmove released its market stats for August 2022, which reveal a 1.3% fall in house prices – the first decrease of 2022, and the biggest price fall since December 2021.
The same data set also revealed a 1046% increase in the demand for garden offices, reinforcing that a want for more space is a key driver for moving house, as found by Ready Steady Store.
How can Ready Steady Store help?
For most homeowners, tying into a mortgage rate well over 4% combined with an 80% increase in energy costs simply isn’t affordable even with new Stamp Duty relief, meaning more and more will look for alternative options within their existing home, such as creating more space or refurbishing existing rooms into more usable areas, like a home office. Here, external storage solutions can not only offer a cost-effective, but also flexible option, enabling homeowners to jump on the market as and when it becomes more viable for them to move house.
