Property prices are falling – and it’s leaving new home owners trapped ...Middle East

As an aspiring first-time buyer, falling property prices don’t generally worry me personally as much as they do others.

The backdrop of falling prices – usually a struggling economy – is obviously not something to aspire to, but as an individual, a slight reduction to the price of homes wouldn’t be so much of a bad thing.

Although Land Registry data in the past week shows that selling prices are dipping – 0.7 per cent between November and December to £270,259 on average – the figures are more worrying once you look under the bonnet.

Property prices are often referred to in the overall direction they are moving in – prices are falling or rising – but the reality is that they don’t move as a homogenous block.

Prices on certain types of home fall, others rise. These things can happen simultaneously – which is exactly what we are seeing in the UK at the moment.

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Along with acute regional differences in price growth and falls, in the last year, the prices of detached (up 0.9 per cent), semi-detached (up 3.3 per cent) and terraced houses (up to 2.9 per cent) have all risen overall, while for flats and maisonettes, there has been a 1.8 per cent fall.

What this creates is a growing chasm between the homes typically owned by first-time buyers and those owned by families and individuals further along their property-owning journeys.

It means it is harder for first-time buyers to trade up their homes, as they will be getting less for their existing property, and start or grow their families.

As covered previously in The i Paper, those in their first-homes usually use the equity they’ve accrued to move up the ladder, but if their first homes are falling in price, and the home they want is becoming more expensive, this becomes extremely difficult.

There’s another reason why the situation many flat owners find themselves in feels egregious.

Many first-time buyers looking to trade up now will have bought their homes in 2021 or 2022, when property prices were peaking in real-terms.

With ultra-low mortgage rates still available before the Liz Truss mini-Budget, many will have stretched to the limit of what they could afford, and perhaps further by using government schemes like Help to Buy – which loaned them extra cash to use as a deposit.

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Many will have done so believing, as they were told, that the best option to get financial stability and a home they love, is to get on the housing ladder, and then work your way up.

They may have believed that prices only ever rise – aided by Government demand stimulating policies like Help to Buy at the time.

But now they are on that ladder, the rungs above them have been pulled away.

They’re left holding on for dear life, trapped. They may find they can only sell if they accept a cash-terms loss – unthinkable five years ago – and their hopes of purchasing a family home after years of diligently paying off their mortgage are dashed.

So though property prices levelling out, and even falling a little, may be necessary for the market as a whole, spare a thought for those who have lost out, not as a result of unnecessary risk-taking or speculation, but through doing exactly what they were told was the right thing.

Hence then, the article about property prices are falling and it s leaving new home owners trapped was published today ( Sunday 22/02/2026 - 10:06 AM ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.

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