MortgagesApr 16 2014

Rising prices buoy property market sentiment

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The latest quarterly Halifax housing market confidence tracker, for which the bank interviewed 1959 people, revealed that 56 per cent of homeowners felt it was a good time to sell their property during the next 12 months, while 60 per cent believed it was a good time to buy.

Some 71 per cent thought house prices would increase during the next 12 months, while just 6 per cent expected prices to fall. Positive sentiment towards selling was at its highest in the east and southeast of England, at 65 per cent.

Craig McKinlay, mortgages director at Halifax, said: “The increase in optimism is partly due to stronger house prices and this shift could provide a much needed increase in the supply of properties available for sale during the rest of the year.”

Meanwhile, a poll of 2000 consumers by specialist lender Precise Mortgages revealed that while almost half of respondents believed the mortgage market was repairing slowly, just 29 per cent thought access to mortgages had improved.

Precise managing director Alan Cleary said: “There appears to be a delay in the buoyancy of the market filtering down to the consumer.”

Adviser view

Ashley France, mortgage adviser at Cheshire-based Ark Financial Planning, said: “It is still very much a buyer’s market here. We have seen a few people try to increase prices, but they end up reducing them soon after. We also haven’t seen the documented rises in prices that Manchester is supposed to have, and we are seeing more remortgage and first-time buyer activity than sales.”