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1-in-7 are planning to buy a house by end of year
The number of people planning to move home has doubled since the beginning of the year as confidence in the property market remains strong, research shows.
Around 15pc of people now claim they plan to buy a new house before next winter, compared with just 7pc at the beginning of the year, according to Alliance & Leicester.
The group said that while not everybody would act on these plans, the increase in intentions showed people felt confident about both house prices and borrowing.
The number of people looking to buy their first home has also increased by nearly a third since January, with 16pc of under 30s, the key first-time buyer age group, now planning to move, up from 12pc at the beginning of the year.
Alliance & Leicester said despite high house prices, affordability still remained good and was far better than during 1990 when many people defaulted on their mortgages. It said people taking out a mortgage during the first three months of the year spent an average of 14pc of their household income on interest payments, the lowest level since the second quarter of 2004, and well down on 1990s level of 27pc.
Debt
Among all mortgage holders, people had an average outstanding mortgage debt of 85,992 at the end of April, nearly 10pc more than last year.
But despite this, affordability remained unchanged with interest accounting for 10pc of their income due to lower interest rates and rising pay, increasing to 21pc if capital repayments were taken into account.
• YouGov questioned 2,000 people during May. Data from the Bank of England, Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Department for Communities and Local Government was also used.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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