In July, confidence in the UK housing market fell for the second month in succession, according to the Woolwich’s latest survey of potential homebuyers.
The proportion of people who think that the value of property will rise further or remain the same in the next 12 months has fallen from 61% in June to 59% in July, according to the Woolwich.
June’s decline – from 64% in May – was the first such fall since November 2001, when sentiment was depressed by the events of 11 September.
The Woolwich’s head of lending, Andy Gray, said: “We have seen a clear indication that people’s confidence in the housing market is starting to decline.”
He added that falling confidence would hit demand, meaning that the house prices would grow more slowly in the coming months.
But in the two regions which have experienced the biggest house price rises in the last year, buyers remain optimistic – in the South West, around 75% of respondents expressed confidence in the Woolwich’s survey, while the figure was around 66% in East Anglia.
Despite the fall in confidence, gross mortgage lending rose by 17% in July, after what the bank called a “quiet month” in June, when the Jubilee weekend and the World Cup kept prospective homebuyers away from the market.
EGi News 19/08/02
