Property market confidence has almost doubled in the last six months, with nearly half of all homeowners expecting their property to increase in value over the next year.
There are still stark regional differences, with those in London and the South East most confident of all and Scots the most pessimistic, according to new research from Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks.
Yet confidence has grown sharply in previously gloomy areas such as Scotland, the North East, North West and Yorkshire, as the revival spreads across the country.
Some 48% of those surveyed as part of the Clydesdale and Yorkshire's Housebuyers Research believe the value of their home will increase over the next 12 months.
That figure has almost doubled over the last six months, when a mere 25% said they expected a home to rise in value. And in April 2012, the figure was just 18%.
London was perhaps inevitably the most optimistic region, with 63% predicting an increase in the price of the house over the next 12 months, followed by 56% in the South East.
Homeowners in the West (56%) and East (50%) were also optimistic.
The most significant upsurge was in the East, where 50% of homeowners now predict an increase in the value of their home. Only 14% predicted an increase in April 2013.
Only 35% of Scots expected their property to rise in value, along with 36% in the North East and Wales. But that is still an improvement on six months ago, when the figures were 20% and 19% respectively.
Homeowners in the Midlands (45%), North West (42%) and Yorkshire (41%) were also less optimistic than the national average of 42%, but again, optimism in these regions had risen sharply in recent months, more than doubling from just 17% in the North West and Yorkshire,.
Andrew Pearce, retail director for Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, said: “It is encouraging to see optimism returning to the property market with a significant increase in the number of people who believe the value of their property will increase.”
While 54% of men believe their property will increase in value over the next 12 months, just 42% of women felt the same.
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