According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, in June this year, gross mortgage lending totalled £11.9 billion. This represents a 5% drop from both the previous month and a year earlier. Moreover, in the first half of 2012, lending totalled £67.9 billion or 7% more than the first six months of 2011.

In addition to this, according to the latest Halifax housing market confidence survey, British citizens expect house prices to rise, rather than fall over the coming year. Approximately one third of those surveyed, expected an increase in property values, in comparison to one fifth who expect house prices to fall further.

This is interesting and correlates quite nicely with recent news from Rightmove, that UK property sellers are seriously overestimating the value of their properties, in relation to current Land Registry market figures. Increased uncertainty regarding the economic outlook, has seen confidence in the market drop since March.

The main hurdles to buying or renting a property, highlighted by those surveyed were:-

Inability to raise a deposit.

Concerns regarding job security.

Household finances.

Scarce availability of mortgages.

From a homeseller’s point of view, making a quick house sale in this economic climate, is looking to be an unduly difficult and time-consuming process. Many people are turning to a cash property buyer to help sell their house quick, as repossessions, burdensome debts and redundancies continue to overshadow the UK economy.