Property market optimism is growing in tune with the government’s mortgage stimulus, suggests Rightmove’s latest consumer confidence survey.
The proportion of people who believe that house prices will be higher in a year’s time jumped from 22 per cent last year to 29 per cent in 2024.
Of these 32 per cent said that improving mortgage market availability was the main reason for their positivity.
However the majority still believe that house prices will be lower or the same.
Miles Shipside, director and housing market analyst at Rightmove, pointed to the “mixed bag” of local market conditions as evidence that a housing market recovery probably isn’t on the horizon.
That’s despite the fact that the wider economy officially emerged from the double dip recession last week.
“Those predicting a pick-up over the next 12 months will no doubt have hopes that the Funding for Lending government scheme will provide the seed-corn that will encourage more lenders to scatter more mortgage products onto the volume-barren housing landscape,” said Shipside.
However there is danger in the detail, more than one in five owners who bought during the last six years believe their property has fallen in value.
This figure increases to 49 per cent for those who bought in 2020, at the peak of the market, meaning there are many who are “trapped” and unable to move up the housing ladder.
Shipside added: “While a fall in equity is not necessarily a blocker to a move, with lenders
demanding a substantial deposit to unlock their best rates it will deter many from trying to sell and
buy again.
“As long as the sums do not add up to make a move up the market worthwhile we are
unlikely to see a substantial recovery in the volume of sales.
“Many home-owners who are trapped by the falling value of their bricks and mortar will now feel as
though they are prisoners of their own mortgage.”
Regionally the difference between 2020 and 2024 is marked, just seven per cent of Bristolers think their property has dropped in value, while 25 per cent in the north-east, midlands and Yorkshire believe they have experienced a fall.
Scotland and Wales have both been hard hit by the recession, 32 and 29 per cent respectively believe their home has experienced a house price collapse.
