Zoopla.co.uk: UK Housing Market Confidence Wanes

LONDON, July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- 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 property 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 Zoopla.co.uk, commented: "This 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 30^th 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.

http://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 Atlas Venture and Octopus Ventures.

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