"The vast majority remain undeterred in their quest to purchase before Christmas and the biggest obstacle has actually been a lack of stock to fulfil this quest."
eXp UK, the platform for personal estate agents, commissioned a survey of 980 homebuyers currently in the process of buying a home to find out how current mortgage market turmoil and the fast approaching Christmas break are impacting their impetus and ability to search for a new home.
The results show that recent rises to mortgage rates have posed problematic for some, with 22% of those surveyed struggling to secure a mortgage to begin with, while 25% stated they had to reassess their mortgage offer during the homebuying process.
A further 32% also stated that they struggled to find a home that was suitable based on their mortgage borrowing eligibility, however, it seems as though purchasing power hasn’t been the number one issue faced in the current market.
For nearly half of buyers, housing stock is presenting a significant problem, with 48% saying low availability is creating difficulty.
This struggle means that 23% have been searching for their ideal home for up to six months, a further 20% have been scouring the market for six months to a year, while 19% have been unsuccessfully house hunting for over a year.
With Christmas on the way, many buyers could be forgiven for packing in their plans to move until after the festive break.
However, spirits remain high, with 82% stating they will keep trying to buy a home with maximum effort, 10% will keep looking but be less active in the runup to Christmas, and only 8% say they intend to postpone their search until Christmas is out of the way.
Head of eXp UK, Adam Day, commented: “There’s no doubt that higher mortgage rates have led to a greater degree of buyer hesitation in recent months and a good proportion have struggled both when securing a mortgage and finding a suitable property within their purchasing eligibility.
"But despite the current property market doom and gloom the vast majority remain undeterred in their quest to purchase before Christmas and the biggest obstacle has actually been a lack of stock to fulfil this quest.
"For the nation’s sellers, this means now is as good a time as any to push forward with your sale. While you may not see your sale complete before Christmas, there remains a high level of motivated buyers buoyed by the recent freeze in interest rates.”
