People looking to move house may have to make changes to their spending habits if they are to afford a new home, claims a finance website.

With the credit crunch hitting the housing market hardest, nearly a quarter of people will look to make financial cutbacks, according to research by Fairinvestment.co.uk.

Higher mortgage payments and rising food and fuel costs mean that people looking to move house with have less money to spend on a new property.

Director at Fairinvestment.co.uk, David Doulton, said: "As we have seen over the past few weeks, the housing market has, so far, been the worst hit by the credit crisis; lenders have rapidly been pulling their best deals, and the structure of mortgages has been re-arranged to include fees and abnormally large deposits."

Only one per cent of people questioned said they would plan to get another credit card to help ease financial difficulty, reflecting how hard it is to get a loan or mortgage in the current financial climate.

Despite the credit crunch creating less disposable income, 17 per cent of participants said they would not make any spending changes at all.