House sales and prices set to rise in early 2012

Nearly two-thirds of property owners believe house prices will rise over the next six months

Around 65 per cent of property owners think that house prices will rise over the next six months, up from 55 per cent 12 months ago. Meanwhile, around one in five of those surveyed by Zoopla.co.uk expect house prices to fall during the first six months of 2013, compared to 29 per cent one year ago.

Meanwhile, house sales across the UK are likely to increase as chartered surveyors' expectations for the coming three months rose significantly, according to the latest figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The Zoopla.co.uk survey suggests that homeowners expect UK property prices to rise by 3.2 per cent on average over the next six months - on the basis that the average UK property is currently valued at £226,908 by Zoopla.co.uk that represents an increase of £7,261 on the value of the average home over the first half of 2013.

Property owners in London are the most bullish with 84 per cent of them expecting prices to rise over the next six months and predicting an average rise of 5.8 per cent. In contrast, 57 per cent of homeowners in Scotland are predicting property prices to rise in the first half of 2013.

Lawrence Hall of Zoopla.co.uk said: “Homeowner confidence has rebounded strongly from one year ago, with a significant majority now expecting to see house price increases over the first half of the year. While we are not yet back to the levels of post credit-crunch optimism seen in late 2009, the increased confidence bodes well for both market activity and pricing in 2013. The single biggest drag on both confidence and the market overall is still the availability of mortgage finance, or rather the lack of it.”

The second report from the RICS shows that last month, 24 per cent more surveyors across the country predicted transactions to rise rather than fall over the next three months.

Peter Bolton King, RICS Global Residential Director, said: "More still needs to be done to ensure potential buyers can access the market at every level. Alongside this, there is still a clear need for more homes to be built."