The looming general election is beginning to affect confidence among home buyers and sellers, research has revealed.
The number of people planning to sell their home within the next six months has dropped to 17%, says Zoopla, down from 23% in October last year.
Its figures also reveal that a similar drop in the number of people planning to buy a property, down from 25% in October to 17% today.
The portal says these drops in confidence are directly attributable to the looming general election called by Theresa May for the 8th June.
Homeowners may be reluctant to move home in the current political and tax environment, but 87% of them across the UK are confident about the value of their home and expect house prices to increase over the next six months.
According to Zoopla’s Housing Market Sentiment Survey, this is an increase of 4% since its last survey six months ago.
General election
“Despite a continued period of political uncertainty, it’s encouraging to see a rise in confidence for property price growth,” says Zoopla spokesman Lawrence Hall (pictured, left)
“[But] we can’t ignore that there’s been a rise in reluctance to buy and sell properties. With the upcoming general election, it’s perhaps no surprise that people may be holding out to make a purchase or sale decision until after June 8th.”
Behind the uncertainty, the lending market is improving, Zoopla says, and obtaining a mortgage is getting easier – the number of people who say it is more difficult to get a mortgage at the moment than six months ago fell back by 3%.
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