Homeowners anticipate a further increase in property prices, according to the latest Zoopla Housing Market Sentiment Survey.
The cooling of the housing market towards the end of last year has evidently not affected homeowner confidence, as 88 per cent of respondents said they expected prices to rise.
This is lower than the 92 per cent measured a year ago, but is consistent with the previous quarter’s data, indicating a stabilisation of confidence, the researchers said.
“The UK property market appeared to have changed its spots towards the end of 2014 – and the more sluggish pace of growth seen in the latter months was a very different beast to the lively price hikes of the spring. But homeowners don’t appear to have been seriously spooked, with consumer confidence standing firm. Encouraged by the vast gains they’ve already experienced this year, homeowners still expect to benefit from significant house price growth in the first half of 2015,” Lawrence Hall of Zoopla.co.uk said.
The average price rise anticipated by homeowners across the country in the next six months is 7 per cent. Londoners expect the value of their homes to grow by an average of 9 per cent by the summer.
Although the majority of homeowners are certain of the continuing inflation on the housing market, the proportion of people worried about a potential price drop is bigger than a year ago.
Now, 7 per cent of the homeowners said they anticipate prices to cool further in the first half of 2015, while at the start of 2014 that proportion was only 3 per cent.
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