Buying sentiment overtakes selling sentiment, as house price expectations cool
The latest Halifax Housing Market Confidence Tracker involving fieldwork in late November (before the Autumn Statement and stamp duty reforms) finds 64% of the public expecting the average UK house price to rise in the next 12 months, down from 68% in September 2014.
This compares to 7% who expect the average price to fall (in line with the 5% who said this last quarter).
HPO, the headline House Price Outlook balance – i.e. the proportion of people that expect the average house price to rise in the next 12 months less those who think it will fall – is +57, compared to +62 in September 2014 and +66 in December 2013 (itself a ‘survey high’ on this measure).
At the same time, 56% of the public consider the next 12 months a good time to buy, up from 49% who said this in September 2014 and exceeding the 51% who think it will be a good time to sell (53% said this in September).
Other findings include:
- Buying sentiment is more positive in Scotland where 65% think the next 12 months will be a good time to buy property (compared to 56% of Britons overall).
- People in Scotland and North England are significantly less likely than Britons overall to say it will be a good time to sell (38% and 42% compared to 51%, respectively).
- Selling sentiment is stronger in the South of England (not including London), where people are significantly more likely than overall to say 2015 will be a good time to sell (62% compared to 51% overall).
- Two in five (39%) think it will be both a good time to buy and sell over the next 12 months, an increase of four percentage points since September 2014 when this figure stood at 35%.
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Technical note
Ipsos interviewed 990 British adults aged 16+ face-to-face, between 14-24 November 2014. Data has been weighted to the known population profile.
