On the 8th of January, an article was published by Nasdaq regarding the housing market in 2021. According to Halifax, during the first lockdown many decided to move into bigger houses with larger gardens, causing the economy to bloom. This may have been due to both the coronavirus and also the uncertainty regarding Brexit and what it would mean for the future. Therefore, house prices rose 7.6% in November 2020, which was the largest rise in 4.5 years. 

As well as this, the Bank of England approved 100,000 mortgages in November – the highest number in almost 15 years. Not only should this help house-buyers, but also the future economy as the people borrowing the money will have to pay the money back over time, with interest, therefore investing back into the country’s economy.

However, the UK’s economic pace is expected to struggle during this current, third lockdown. Downward pressure on house prices is likely as we continue to emerge into the new year, 2021. This is mainly because of unemployment rates that are predicted to climb massively in the coming months as government schemes, such as furloughing, come to an end. This means that lots of businesses – particularly small, developing businesses – are going to struggle to survive even more, forcing the firms to issue lots of redundancies. 

Crest Nicholson, a housebuilding company, is known to most of the locals in Greenhithe as it has built many housing developments there. In the year 2020, Crest built 2,247 homes which is more than 20% less than anticipated. A £9.3 million work-in-progress site in Greenhithe was aborted due to hindrances caused by COVID-19. 

According to current Zoopla estimates, the current average detached house value is £573,934 in Greenhithe, a 2.95% increase in the last 12 months. Whereas in London, Mayfair, there have been price drops by as much as 40%, with some property values decreasing from £4.9million to £2.9million, and only 30 sales in the past 6 months in postcodes such as SW13.