Europeans Hopeful House Prices Will Rise Longer Term
Europeans have high hopes that the value of their houses will rise over the next five years, even if the next 12 months see prices remaining stagnant or falling, according to a Financial Times/Harris opinion poll.
The Italians, Spanish and British are most upbeat about longer-term price trends.
However, the British are also gloomiest about the short term, with 42 per cent expecting the value of their homes to fall over the next year.
The figures are supported by a new FT database, which confirms that European housing markets have cooled markedly recently, with the UK and Ireland showing the most dramatic turnrounds.
German house prices have remained flat or fallen over the past 15 years or so. Unsurprisingly, almost half of German owners expected the price of their house to remain unchanged over the next five years. Nevertheless, 40 per cent of Germans surveyed expected an increase over the same period.
In the other large countries covered by the poll, 64 per cent of Italians, 57 per cent of the Spanish and 56 per cent of the British expected prices to have increased by 2013.
The results of the survey suggest that a majority of Europeans expect prices to remain flat over the next 12 months.
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