Zoopla.co.uk: UK Housing Market Confidence Wanes
By Zoopla.co.uk, PRNETuesday, July 19, 2011
LONDON, July 20, 2011 -
- According to Zoopla.co.uk housing market confidence is down in
all regions except London and the South East; only 57% of customers
expect house prices to grow over the next 6 months -
The number of homeowners who expect house prices to rise over
the next six months has fallen over the last quarter, according to
the latest Zoopla.co.uk
Housing Market Sentiment Survey. 57% of homeowners now believe
prices are set to climb, compared to 59% in March.
Confidence has waned over the second quarter of 2011 due to
continued lending constraints and economic uncertainty. Despite the
quarterly drop in confidence, homeowners are still more positive
now than they were back in January when only 54% of homeowners
believed prices would rise. However, these figures are still
significantly below the peak in early 2010 when 81% of British
homeowners expected property prices to rise.
The drop in confidence has also affected the amount by which
homeowners believe house prices will rise over the coming six
months. According to the 4,146 homeowners surveyed by
Zoopola.co.uk, house prices are expected to rise by an average of
2.6% over the next six months, down from the 2.8% predicted three
months ago.
The story in London and the South East is very different from
the national trend with housing market confidence growing in these
areas. In the capital, 74% of homeowners are expecting house prices
to rise between now and the end of the year, up from 68% three
months ago. And the average amount by which Londoner’s expect the
price of
for sale in London to grow has increased significantly to 6.2%,
up from 2.7% last quarter. In the rest of the South East, 63% of
homeowners are confident prices will rise compared to only 58%
three months ago.
Contributing to the overall drop in confidence in the housing
market are the continued tight lending conditions with nearly one
third (32%) of homeowners surveyed saying that it is harder to get
a mortgage now than three months ago, 55% claiming there has been
no change to lending conditions and a mere 12% believing that
obtaining mortgage finance was getting easier.
The largest drop in confidence over the last 3 months has been
in Scotland where 58% of homeowners now expect house prices to rise
over the next six months, down from 63% three months ago. In
England 58% of owners expect house prices to rise down from 59%
three months ago and in Wales 53% expect prices to climb, down from
54%.
Nicholas Leeming of
slight dip in confidence is justified by the weakening economic
outlook and continuing constraints in the lending market. These
factors have caused activity in the property market to fall which
has resulted in waning confidence. Aside from a more reassuring
economic outlook, the key catalyst for increased property market
activity and UK
house prices will be down to lenders improving the availability
of mortgage finance.”
Methodology
- Zoopla.co.uk invited registered users to participate in this
survey which was fielded from 27th to 30th June
2011. - There were 4,515 total respondents. 4,146 of these were
homeowners. Statistics based on a sample of this size are accurate
to within less than +/- 1.0% with 95% confidence, if the sample is
drawn at random from the population it intends to represent. - These respondents represent the perspective of the Zoopla.co.uk
user community and could be considered to represent the population
of people interested in the UK residential property market. All
statistics are based on the full sample unless otherwise noted
About Zoopla.co.uk
Zoopla.co.uk is the UK’s most comprehensive property website,
focused on empowering consumers with the resources they need to
make better-informed property decisions. We help our users make
sense of the residential property market by combining property
listings with market value data, local information and community
tools.
www.zoopla.co.uk
was founded on the principles of transparency and efficiency and
everything we do aims to make the market more effective for both
property consumers and professionals alike. Our mission is to
provide the most useful online property experience by:
- displaying property listings along with value and price trend
information - providing rich property data and local market information in
one place - enabling users to search for property in a variety of
customised ways - allowing users to engage with professionals via our tools like
AskMe! - building relationships between home owners and local estate
agents
By combining free, instant value estimates for every UK home
with sold prices, local market information and hundreds of
thousands of properties available for sale and to rent,
Zoopla.co.uk has become the ultimate destination for property
consumers to search for property and do their market research. We
are the UK’s fastest growing property website and are proud to have
been named ‘Best Property Portal 2009′ (Daily Mail UK Property
Awards).
Our unique features, like AskMe!™ and TemptMe!™ allow users to
gain an insight into the market and discover information they won’t
find anywhere else. And our AskAnAgent feature has rapidly become
one of the most valued sources of vendor leads for UK estate
agents. We calculate our value estimates using a proprietary
algorithm (secret formula) that continuously analyses millions of
data points relating to property sales and home characteristics
throughout the UK. Our estimates are constantly refined, using the
most recent data available and a variety of methodologies, in order
to provide the most current information on any home.
Zoopla Ltd is a privately held company with a highly experienced
and proven management team, backed by well-respected angel
investors and leading venture capital firms
For more information about Zoopla.co.uk become a fan on
For further information, please contact: Lawrence Hall at lawrence.hall at zoopla.co.uk or on +44(0)20-7620-4618
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