London buyers sour on state of housing market
People in London and the south east of England are less confident that now is a good time to buy property than fellow Brits in the rest of the UK, according to survey results revealed this morning.
The balance of people who think now is a good time to buy property has slumped across the country, but the London and the south east is the most pessimistic by a distance.
For the whole of the UK, just five percentage points more now think that it is a good time to buy, down from 35 points this time last year.
In London and the south east, the figures are already deep into negative territory. The net balance for the regions stands at minus 19 and minus 24, a rapid drop from positive territory three months ago.
In comparison, people in the regions who are looking to sell think it is an increasingly good time – with a net balance of 55 per cent of Londoners and 44 per cent of people in the south east agreeing.
The growth in house prices in London has been particularly rapid over the last year. During the 12 months to May, prices rose by 20.1 per cent in the capital, three times as fast as the UK excluding London and the south east.