Homeowners remain confident

UK homeowners remain buoyant regarding the state of the property market with 92% expecting house prices to grow over the next six months, the Zoopla Housing Market Sentiment Survey has revealed.

According to the 7,810 homeowners surveyed property prices will grow by 7.6% from now until the end of the year.

However with the introduction of the Mortgage Market Review 40% of homeowners assert that getting a mortgage is harder than three months ago.

Londoners are no longer the most confident group regarding house price growth, with the region being overtaken by the South East, the South West, the East of England and the West Midlands.

Lawrence Hall, head of communications at of Zoopla.co.uk, said: “After months of consistent growth in the capital’s property market we are now seeing a slight increase in caution among London’s homeowners.

“More broadly, securing a mortgage appears to be getting harder now that MMR has caused lenders to be more rigorous with their lending criteria and approval process.”

The current figure of 92% expecting house price growth is slightly down from three months ago, when 95% anticipated property price growth.