BSA survey reveals shift in housing market sentiment

The Building Societies Association (BSA) has published the results of its latest Property Tracker survey, which indicate that more people believe that now is a good time to buy a home.

Forty-six per cent of those surveyed were, to some extent, positive about making a purchase, compared with 34% in September and 27% in July.

Fifteen per cent strongly disagreed with the idea that now is a good time to buy, compared with 22% in September and 18% in July.

The BSA’s head of mortgage policy, Paul Broadhead, believes the results of the study bode well for 2009 because sentiment plays such an important role in the UK property market.

The research also revealed that concerns about being able to pay the mortgage on a purchase are lessening.

Thirty-seven per cent of respondents viewed this as a problem in December, compared with 54% in September and 70% in July.

However, a lack of job security surfaced as a major barrier to home purchase with 58% of respondents anxious about this, compared to 28% in September and just 12% in June.

Mr Broadhead comments that while buyers are increasingly optimistic about the future of the property market, the threat of recession means that even optimistic buyers will bide their time and wait to see what happens to both prices and to the economy as a whole.

With regard to further price falls, the average change predicted for 2009 was a decline of 8.6%.

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