The big news last year was the housing market and the number of home buyers seeking their pandemic lifestyle dream home. Despite the pandemic taking grip on the world and the UK experiencing lockdowns, one of the largest consumer purchases was not put on hold. Home buyers flocked to the market and not only kept it afloat, but supported businesses associated with moving and setting up a new home. This coming year is not expected to be as robust as last, but that doesn’t mean that borrowing will falter because homeowners are expected to remortgage and in large numbers.

UK first time home buyers took advantage of the opportunities available to them in 2021 from low historic level interest rates to the stamp duty holiday and boosted sales to first time homeowners to the highest level in almost twenty years. According to data released by the Yorkshire Building Society, the number of sales to first time home buyers increased by 35% in the past year. Not since 2002 has there been such a strong showing in the housing market of first time buyers, which is estimated to be 408,300 for 2021.

The UK housing market has seen a flurry of activity since the pandemic took hold in the economy. It was surprising, especially since lockdowns were in place when the activity began to grow in the market and the demand never slowed down. Many factors came into play that caused the surge in buying and records were broken month after month. Another buying record in the housing market could occur this month.

The pandemic was expected to cause problems across all sectors of the economy. However the housing market in the UK surprised even the most optimistic forecasters this year. Lockdowns created a new desire in the pandemic lifestyle for more space. Home buyers sought homes that had more space indoors and outdoors. The race for space produced an unexpected demand from buyers and the housing market grew at the fastest pace in almost a decade and a half.

The UK housing market has shown an amazing amount of resilience during the global pandemic. The strong demand from buyers surprised even the most optimistic experts. Rather than settle in during lockdowns, people sought out a more comfortable home to endure the restrictions and lifestyle imposed by Covid-19. A never ending conveyor belt of buyers entered the housing market, and even in areas that had been all but ignored in the past few years.

Inflation is growing and that means that most everything is costing more than it did before. Saving money is more important than ever when inflation is growing and looking for ways to do so in a household budget can be next to impossible when also facing a winter with rising energy costs. Homeowners have a unique opportunity to save hundreds of pounds per month and gain peace of mind against the stresses of financial strains. Experts have encouraged all homeowners to shop for a remortgage as there could be substantial savings waiting for them.