UK homeowners 'in denial' over falling property values » Housing » 24dash.com

A third of homeowners think the value of their property has not been affected by the recent housing market downturn, research showed today.

Around 32% of people said they thought their home was worth either the same or more than it was 12 months ago, according to property valuation site Zoopla.co.uk.

Their confidence comes despite the fact that official house price indexes show that homes have lost nearly 13% of their value during the past year.

Research carried out by Zoopla also showed that 97.3% of UK house prices have fallen during the period, with just 2.7% rising in value.

Going forward, homeowners continue to expect their property to buck the current trend in the housing market, with 38% expecting their home to either hold its value or for it to increase.

This is despite the fact that only 19% thinking house prices across the country will not fall during the coming 12 months.

Just 5% of people said they thought the value of their property would decrease significantly during the period, although 16% think their neighbour's home will be worth a lot less in a year's time than it is now.

At the same time 30% of people think the price of their home will rise during the coming year, but only 14% think neighbouring properties will see a similar increase.

Alex Chesterman, chief executive of Zoopla.co.uk, said: "Our survey indicates quite a significant gap between perception and reality and perhaps more interestingly how homeowners perceive the value of their own home versus those of their neighbours.

"Clearly, there is some element of denial at play here that results in people believing that they are insulated from the market troubles that affect the homes around them.

"This also spills over into market confidence, where more homeowners surveyed expect the value of their homes to perform better over the coming year than in the past year, indicating that many believe the worst is over despite little evidence to support this."

Fly Research questioned 1,000 people during October.