The market analyst: "Reasonable to believe prices are going down"

In the Buyer Barometer, Hemnet's visitors, who state that they will buy a home, answer how they think the price trend will look in the next six months. Normally, the survey is conducted once a month, but since the corona pandemic put pressure on society, the housing site Hemnet chose to ask the question again in March. And the answers differ, in just two weeks the home buyers have become significantly more pessimistic.

- It's a dramatic difference. The proportion who believe in falling prices goes up to 45 percent, compared with 16 percent two weeks before. At the same time, the proportion who believe in rising prices is falling sharply, says Erik Holmberg, Hemnet's market analyst.

A similar situation occurred in the fall of 2017, when housing prices dropped sharply. Even then, the Buyer Barometer quickly turned from a confidence in rising prices, to a strong overweight for those who believed in falling prices.

- Prices and price expectations usually follow one another fairly well. This indicates that prices will dip in the near future. It is reasonable to believe that prices are going down.

Recently, there is also a marked increase in the range of tenant-owned apartments, which Erik Holmberg also thinks is an effect of the corona virus.

- It usually increases this time of year, but it is increasing even more now. Our interpretation of this is that many want to come to an end because you do not know what will happen one or two weeks in the future.