A third of people surveyed (29%) said the optimism had started within the last month, as a result of improving house prices and completion numbers.

The survey also revealed that a third of people (35%) were not prepared to drop their asking price at all to sell at the moment, whereas only one in ten would offer full asking price on the property they are looking to buy (12%).

The findings reveal that house sellers from Scotland are most likely to hold out for the full asking price (40%), whereas people from the East Midlands are the most likely to accept a lower asking price, with only 30% of sellers here not prepared to negotiate on the asking price.

John Hughes, director of retail banking at The Co-operative Bank, commented: “With much speculation about green shoots of recovery in the housing market, the findings do indicate that consumer optimism is starting to return, although there clearly still remains some way to go.”