Public split over future of UK property | Europe | News

Public split over future of UK property | Europe | News

The general public in the UK are split regarding the direction of property prices over the coming 12 months, according to new research from the Worldwide Property Group.
The results of the company's monthly confidence tracker survey reveals that 37% of respondents believe that house prices will rise over the course of the year whilst 35% are of the opinion that prices will remain static. Some 28% indicated that they are expecting prices to fall during this time.

The survey, which was conducted throughout February, also revealed some interesting figures on the subject of interest rates, a subject which has begun to receive a great deal of media attention in recent months.

A huge 77% of those who took the survey believe that rates will increase during the next 12 months, although two thirds of these are not expecting any more than a half percent increase in total. This lends weight to the market expectation that rates are set to rise relatively soon. Interestingly, 5% indicated that they anticipate a further reduction in interest rates during this time.

Overall, confidence in both domestic and overseas property continues to ride high with 72% of the opinion that right now is a great time to buy a property in the UK. 77% feel that this is also a good time to make a foreign property acquisition and this represents the first time since the survey began in August 2009 that overseas property has received a higher confidence rating that the UK. 69% indicated that they are currently considering an overseas purchase with the United States still firmly in the number one spot.