The UK housing market has hardly had the most impressive 2012, with property prices continuing to fall across the country and affordability being something dreams are made of. But what will happen in 2013?

What happened in 2012?

Trying to own a home in 2012 did actually get off to a good start as the stamp duty holiday was relaxed until the end of March. This meant that buyers hoping to snap up a property under £250,000 were able to do so without paying anything towards stamp duty.

So naturally, this sent a flurry of buyers to the market stirring up a bit of activity in the first quarter.

Despite this, it was not enoughto keep the momentum going. Housing is expensive and raising a deposit for one is even more of a challenge than trying to get a mortgage approval.

Banks began to relax slightly, but the deepening crisis in Eurozone and the emergence of the Libor scandal caused them to become tighter with their lending.

To...

With renting fast becoming the social norm for many, the number of private tenants has exceeded the number of social tenants for the first time since the 1960s.

The English Housing Survey for 2011-12 shows that the rising number of private tenants, 3.84 million, outnumbered the 3.8 million in social housing.

This increase reflects growing demand for rental homes from a rising population and those unable to buy a property for themselves. However, it also reflects the growing trend for flexible living. Renting allows people to relocate and up-size or down-size easily. This combined with the fact that the quality of the rental homes on offer has improved dramatically over recent years makes becoming a tenant a very attractive option and is often preferred to home ownership.

According to one of the UK’s leading mortgage lenders, residential property prices in the UK rose by more than economists had expected in January putting a halt to the annual decline.

Nationwide say that residential property prices in the UK actually increased by 0.5% in January 2013, a further sign that the two years of static residential property prices and historically low property sales across the UK may soon be coming to an end.

Nationwide have published data that states that the average residential property price in the UK is now £162,245 (GBP).

However, the mainstream mortgage lender has stressed that mortgage loan numbers for First Time Buyers (FTB’s), which account for 40% of all UK mortgage transactions still remain a cause for concern, despite the launch of the government’s mortgage funding initiative, the Funding For Lending Scheme (FLS), which was designed to increase the availability of mortgage...