This is because each bank bases its forecasts on its own loan book. The Office for National Statistics provides the most accurate snapshot of the housing market, but it is published two months after the data is recorded.
Nicky Stevenson, of the estate agents Fine & Country, said: “Although there is a huge disagreement between Halifax’s 1.7pc price rise for the year and Nationwide’s 1.8pc fall, the property market has performed far more strongly than many analysts predicted.
“There are many reasons for optimism as we head into the new year. Economic stability is encouraging lenders to offer increasingly competitive mortgage rates, widening affordability for buyers and driving activity.”
This week HSBC became the first major high street lender to offer a mortgage deal with a rate below 4pc for homeowners looking to remortgage. The lender also reduced its two-year fixed deals to 4.49pc, below the 4.5pc threshold for the first time since June, according to the broker L&C Mortgages.
Halifax has also announced cuts on some of its mortgage deals by as much as 0.92 percentage points. Meanwhile, Leeds Building Society has also recently cut rates by 0.49 percentage points and now offers a two-year fix at 4.6pc.
UK Finance, the banking trade body, found that gross mortgage lending dropped by more than a quarter last year and forecast falls of a further 5pc in 2024.
However the property listings site Rightmove said that more than 10,000 new properties came to market on Boxing Day alone, 26pc higher than last year in what it described as an “early positive sign” of a bounceback.
Meanwhile, net mortgage approvals for house purchases rose from 47,900 in October to 50,100 in November, according to the latest figures from the Bank of England.
