Consumer confidence in housing market 'on ice'

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:21:00 GMT

Consumer confidence in the UK housing market will be "on ice" until the results of the general election are announced later in the year, it has been suggested.

Stephen Robertson, director general of the British Retail Consortium, says that homebuyer confidence has gone as far as it is going to go for the time being.

"The consumer is not going to get more enthusiastic", he states.

His comments come in response to recent data from Nationwide, which reveals that Britons are feeling more confident about the property market than they were at the same time last year.

Consumer confidence in the housing sector increased by three percentage points in January to 73 per cent.

This is almost double the level of faith that was held in the market during the same month in 2009, when the figure stood at 39 per cent.

And it would appear that this sentiment is having a positive impact on house prices in the UK - according to the Nationwide Price Index, property values in January saw an 8.6 per cent year-on-year growth.

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