Real Estate Predictions 2025: What Six UK Agents Expected and What Happened

Most of what six UK agents predicted for 2025 held up in the official figures: interest rates fell, house prices rose a little and more homes changed hands than in 2024. The year was steadier in its totals than in its months, though, and the lettings law and the local projects they were counting on are still playing out.

They are Giraffe360 clients, and we asked them for their predictions in December 2024: Nick Patel, Rental Director at Oyster Properties; Steve Grace, Founder Director at Kingshills Estate Agents; Michelle Gallagher, Sales Director, and Josh Heron, Lettings Director, at JD Gallagher Estate Agents; and Jack Guest and Matt Rhodes, Sales Negotiators at Murdoch & Wasley Estate Agents.

Where 2025 Bore Them Out

Jack Guest made the forecast that is easiest to check:

I think it'll be a good, strong market, and interest rates will come down as predicted.

They did. The Bank of England's record of Bank Rate shows four cuts in 2025, in February, May, August and December, which took the rate from 4.75% to 3.75%.

Matt Rhodes expected more of the same:

2024 was a good year, and I think it'll continue into the next.

More homes did change hands. HMRC publishes monthly counts of completed UK residential sales, and adding up its months gives about 1.21 million sales in 2025, against 1.10 million in 2024. Prices rose too. In the UK House Price Index for December 2025, the average UK home cost £270,000, 2.4% or £6,000 more than a year before.

Steve Grace's view of the market was the cautious version of the same forecast:

As a company, we're growing, so my prediction for the housing market is that it will remain fairly stable.

Stable is a fair word for a year in which prices in England rose 1.7%. The English regions ranged from a 4.6% rise in the North East to a 1.0% fall in London.

A Steady Year With an Uneven Spring

Steve Grace also expected the year to run without a shock:

I think we'll have a steady year in 2025, with no major interruptions. There are no elections, and while there will be a budget, we likely already know what to expect.

The Budget came on 26 November, and its property measures don't start until 2027 and 2028. The interruption came earlier, from a tax change with a date already set. Until 31 March 2025, Stamp Duty Land Tax charged nothing on the first £250,000 of a home's price. From 1 April, the zero band ends at £125,000 and the next £125,000 is charged at 2%, so a buyer of a £250,000 home who owns no other property now pays £2,500 where they had paid nothing.

Sales bunched up before the change and fell away after it. In HMRC's figures, 91,590 UK residential sales completed in February 2025 and 165,690 in March, then 56,970 in April and 81,880 in May. Across the twelve months, it still came out as the steady year Steve Grace expected.

Lettings and Local Bets Still Playing Out

Josh Heron spoke for the lettings side:

We work with engaged landlords, so while the media suggests landlords are selling up, we're advising that property remains a solid investment.

He also pointed to "the positive aspects of upcoming law changes". In England, those changes are now law. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, and the government's implementation roadmap set 1 May 2026 for the first phase: "no fault" evictions ended, and periodic tenancies replaced fixed terms for new and existing tenancies. Rents kept rising through 2025. The ONS put the average UK private rent at £1,368 a month in December 2025, 4.0% higher than a year before. A landlord buying another home has paid 5% on top of the standard Stamp Duty rates since 31 October 2024, up from 3%. These figures don't count landlords who sold, so whether his stayed is for him to say.

Michelle Gallagher looked closer to home:

While agents are focused on the budget, the VAT on private schools could benefit us, as we have no private schools in Lancaster but two top-ranked grammar schools.

VAT at 20% has applied to private school fees since 1 January 2025. In HM Land Registry's index for Lancaster, the average price went from £196,403 in December 2024 to £199,509 in December 2025, a rise of 1.6%, after dipping to 2.6% below the year before in June and July. That is close to England's 1.7%, and nothing in the index says what moved it. Her other reason for optimism was "the Eden Project North coming to Morecambe". Now called Eden Project Morecambe, it is due to open in late 2028: work began on site in summer 2026, and its first part, the Bring Me Sunshine garden, is planned to open in spring 2027.

Nick Patel predicted something about agencies themselves:

I believe it will push thriving businesses to improve continuously, rather than relying on traditional methods and waiting for results. Success will come to the more proactive, which will be the most exciting part.

No index measures that, so of the six forecasts it is the one each agency has to check for itself: what it did differently in 2025 instead of waiting for results.