THE SLOWDOWN in the housing market long predicted by analysts appears to be already biting.

Yesterday housebuilder Crest Nicholson said the number of homes sold on each of its sites was as low as 0.35 - compared to 0.8 as recently as the latter half of 2021.

It is the latest sign of stress in the housing market, with a combination of recessionary headwinds, runaway inflation and rising interest rates all contributing to a significant cooling in demand for homes.

Market indexers including Rightmove, Zoopla and Halifax have all predicted price falls in 2023 of as much as eight per cent.

Yesterday consultancy Oxford Economics predicted a double-digit fall in house prices in the year ahead.

"A drop in new buyer demand was a predictable consequence of the marked deterioration in mortgage affordability in the autumn, but the scale of the fall in activity is surprising," it said of new Bank of England data released earlier this month.

Crest Nicholson boss Peter Truscott said of results published yesterday, to the end of October last year, that demand had remained "resilient for much of the trading period."

However he added that the firm was forced to "navigate operational disruption throughout the year and faced increased economic uncertainty in the final quarter".

Shares fell more than two per cent yesterday, now down 23 per cent on last year. That fall has been mirrored across the sector - with Barratt also down 31 per cent and Persimmon down 45 per cent.

(c) 2023 City A.M., source Newspaper