Around 25% of people think house prices will drop during the year, down from 32% who were expecting them to drop further when the same research was carried out during the first quarter of the year, according to property website Rightmove.co.uk.
Instead, 40% of people think prices will be broadly unchanged 12 months from now. Almost 50% of the 26,000 people surveyed said they thought property in their area was overvalued, rising to 66% among first-time buyers.
People in London were most likely to think house prices were too high at 61%, followed by those in the South West at 53% and those in the South East at 52%.
Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said: “There is a growing sense that many homes coming onto the UK housing market are priced too high and this is borne out by the views expressed in this survey.
“We now have a situation where half of the UK public feel house prices are too high, yet three-quarters of the same public are expecting prices to either stay the same or increase over the next 12 months. This suggests the prospect of a market stand-off and rising unsold stock levels if sellers don’t wise up to the house price views of their target market.”
