Consumer confidence in the housing market has fallen to its lowest level in 12 months.
The latest quarterly Halifax Housing Market Confidence Tracker shows this dip mirrors the small fall in confidence over the outlook for the economy in the coming year.
However the overall picture for house prices remains relatively robust as the difference between those who think it is a good time to buy and those who think it is a good time to sell has converged, pointing to a period of fairly stable house prices.
Craig McKinlay, mortgages director at Halifax, says confidence has increased significantly over the last three years, but seems to have hit a ceiling in the last year .
“However, the national figures mask big regional differences, and more than half of people in London (55 per cent) think the next 12 months will be a bad time to buy compared to compared to just over a third (37 per cent) of Britons overall.”
Regionally, those in London have the most positive outlook for the average UK property price, with eight in ten (79 per cent) expecting a rise in compared to seven in ten (68 per cent) overall.
London’s also the only region where more people think it’ll be a bad time to buy, than those who think it’ll be a good time to buy (55 per cent and 33 per cent respectively).
Barriers to buying
The most frequently-mentioned perceived barrier to buying is being able to raise enough deposit, with 57 per cent saying this is an issue.
However, this has fallen from 63 per cent one year ago, while in the last three months the proportion citing household finances as a barrier is up from 28 per cent to 39 per cent.
Meanwhile, 19 per cent mention concerns about interest rate rises as a barrier to buying, up from 11 per cent this time last year.
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