British households perceive that the value of their home increased in April, a survey from Knight Frank and Markit Economic showed Friday.
The house price sentiment index, or HPSI, rose to 58.2 in March from 57.5 in the previous month. This marked the twenty-fifth consecutive month of the index remaining above 50.
A reading above 50 signals a rise in house prices, while a figure below 50 indicates a decline. The latest increase was only moderate as compared to March, suggesting that households believe prices continued to rise in spite of the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of next month’s General Election.
The future HPSI, a measure of expectations on house prices, climbed for the second straight month to 70.2 in April from 69.6 in March.
Households in the East of England were most confident about price rises in April, with the corresponding index rising to 78.7 from 71.7 in the prior month.
The share of UK households planning to buy a property in the next twelve months rose to 6.5 percent in April from 5.7 percent in the preceding month.
“There are still headwinds in the market, not least the hurdles facing first-time buyers to climb onto the property ladder with affordability levels still high in some areas of the country, but the sentiment index suggests that households are looking to the summer with the expectation that house prices will be moving upwards,” Grainne Gilmore, Head of UK Residential Research at Knight Frank, said.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com