Property is 'still over-valued'

27/04/2011

A survey has found that most Britons believe property is over-valued, but only 25 per cent think that house prices will fall even more this year.

Property website Rightmove.co.uk conducted the poll. When the research was conducted during the first quarter of 2011, the number of people who thought prices would fall was higher at 32 per cent.

The current poll found that 40 per cent of respondents think that house prices will stay the same in a year from now, which is the seventh quarter in a row that the proportion of people who believe this has risen.

But expecting house prices to stabilise has not stopped 48 per cent of people from thinking that property in their area was over-valued, which increased to 66 per cent among first-time buyers.

People in London were most likely to think house prices were too high at 61 per cent, followed by those in the South West at 53 per cent and those in the South East at 52 per cent.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said: "There is a growing sense that many homes coming on to the UK housing market are priced too high and this is borne out by the views expressed in this survey.

"We now have a situation where half of the UK public feel house prices are too high, yet three-quarters of the same public are expecting prices to either stay the same or increase over the next 12 months."