Estate-agent poll reveals house price expectations

09-Jul-2008

House prices in the UK will stop falling within a year, according to a new survey of estate agents.

The poll of 100 agents, carried out by Abbey Mortgages, revealed that homeowners expect prices to stop falling in just seven months, while 28 per cent of estate agents think it will take between one and two years.

Just under a third of estate agents polled said they think house prices will have stabilised in six months' time, with two per cent believing that declining house prices will last for longer than three years.

"Estate agents and homeowners believe that, despite current movements in house prices, we are unlikely to experience a really prolonged period of house price falls," observed Phil Cliff, the director of Abbey Mortgages.

"Most think the period of decline will be over within a year and a very small minority think it will last longer than two to three years," he continued.

"While this is 'light at the end of the tunnel', it implies that estate agents and homeowners are bracing themselves for further falls in the very near future."

Abbey's figures indicate that seven per cent of homeowners plan to take advantage of house price falls in the next 12 months by "snapping up a bargain".

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