Confidence is returning to the housing market, says Zoopla

Research by Zoopla suggests that homeowners' confidence in the property market is on the rise. 

The property website's latest Housing Market Sentiment Survey shows that 84% of homeowners expect their properties to grow in value. 

This is up 14% from when the survey of almost 2,000 owners was taken in November last year.

Average expected price growth has also increased to 6.9%, up from 4.9%. 

Owners in the East Midlands and the East of England are the most optimistic about the housing market's prospects, with 93% and 90% of respective respondents in these regions expecting the value of their home to rise over the next six months.

The UK's least confident region is the North East where just 63% of those taking part in the survey expect house prices to rise over the next few months. 

However, this still represents a regional uplift of 22% from when the survey was last taken.

The study also reveals that 64% of property owners are not planning on spending more on home improvements between now and the end of the year, while 43% are planning to rejuvenate their home in some form during this period.

Less than 7% of those surveyed said they are planning to refinance a mortgage - down from 9% last November.

“It’s encouraging to see a bounce-back in consumer confidence in the market – it’s the largest increase we’ve seen since 2016," says Zoopla spokesperson Lawrence Hall.