Public expect further house price rises in 2015
The latest Halifax Housing Market Confidence Tracker – undertaken shortly after last month’s Autumn Statement – finds 67% of the public expecting the average UK house price to rise throughout 2015.
After a year which has seen rising house prices across Britain, the public expect further rises rather than falls over the next 12 months by a margin of just over 13 to 1.
A third, 34%, expect rises of under 5%, a quarter, 24%, anticipate increases of between 5 and 10% while one in ten, 10%, expect increases of 10% or higher. Only 5% expect the average house price to fall by the end of 2015 and a fifth, 20%, think it will be unchanged.
The Confidence Tracker also finds 55% of Britons of the view that the next 12 months will be a good time to sell property, exceeding those who think it will be a bad time (31%). This is an improvement on the past two measures and the balance of +24 is the healthiest since July 2014.
While the public are more positive about selling than they were in November 2014, there has been little change in buying sentiment since November’s measure. Now, 56% think the next 12 months will be a good time to buy, higher than the 30% who think it will be a bad time.
The result is the best equilibrium in buy/sell sentiment seen since the Confidence Tracker’s inception in 2011.
Other findings include:
- Being able to raise enough deposit continues to be the most commonly identified main barrier to property purchase (60% say this), while 50% cite job security as a barrier.
- There has been a sharp drop in the proportion identifying interest rates as a barrier – down from 19% in September to 13% now.
- Only 4% pick out stamp duty, unchanged since reforms announced in the Autumn Statement.
- The majority of private renters, 63%, expect private rents to rise.
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Technical note
Ipsos interviewed 1,970 British adults aged 16+ face-to-face, between 5-21 December 2014. Data has been weighted to the known population profile.
