Confidence in the housing market has risen significantly over the past three months,according to the latest quarterly Halifax Housing Market Confidence tracker.
The tracker reveals that the headline House Price Outlook balance (i.e. the difference between the proportion of people across Britain that expect the average house price to rise rather than fall) stood at +40 in June. This was an increase of 7 percentage points compared with last quarter (+33) and was the highest score on this measure since the tracker began in April 2011.
The majority of people expect prices to rise across all regions. Confidence is strongest in London, which recorded a net balance of 69, followed by the South East. People living in the North West, the East Midlands and Wales were found to be the least confident about an upturn in prices.
In an indication that house sales could climb higher in the coming months, nearly one quarter (23%) of people think the coming year is a good time to both buy and sell a home, up from just 16% three months ago.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, commented: “Sentiment regarding the outlook for house prices has improved markedly over the past quarter, continuing the trend seen since late 2012. This increase in optimism is partly due to house prices being stronger than expected in the first half of the year. We continue to see a clear north / south divide with significantly higher proportions of people expecting prices to rise in the south than elsewhere in the UK.
“Nonetheless, the market still faces substantial headwtoinds with, for example, house prices remaining above the historical average in relation to earnings. Such factors are likely to prevent a sharp acceleration in house prices."
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