Property news roundup: How often do you look in estate agents' windows?

Plus, valuing the UK's total housing market, Help to Buy figures, and homeowner optimism

(Alan Cleaver)

According to mortgage broker Ocean Finance, almost a third of UK adults often take a look to see what’s on the market - another third do the same online, or read the local newspaper to see what the homes' interiors look like. Indeed, more than one in 10 admit they have visited homes for sale or rent despite having no intention of moving.

"Clearly the UK is a nation obsessed," said Ian Williams of Ocean Finance. "The desire to own our own home is part of our national culture, and our research suggests that even when we have bought a property, that obsession doesn’t go away."

Help to Buy: equity loan creates 46 new homeowners a day

Housing Minister Kris Hopkins has announced that since the scheme’s launch nine months ago, there have been 12,875 sales of newly-built properties through the Help to Buy: equity loan scheme, with a further 6,446 sales in the pipeline. Leeds has the highest number of sales with 230 through the scheme since April, while Wiltshire, Central Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes and Manchester are all in the top five.

Homeowners optimistic about house prices

Just over half of homeowners think the value of their current home will increase in the next year, claims Countrywide's last survey, which represents an increase of 17 per cent from November 2012. It also shows that just under one in five adults in Britain say they cannot buy or move because they are unable to afford a deposit, and that 7% of women would be unwilling to compromise on their commute when buying a property compared to 14% of men.The findings were reinforced by a similar survey for Knight Frank which showed that householder in every region believed that the value of their home rose during the last month.

How much is the UK's housing worth?

Lucian Cook from Savills has been hard at work valuing the UK's housing stock, which he puts at £5.205 trillion, up £186 billion in 2013. The value of housing stock in London rose by over £100bn in 2013, and over the last five years it has increased by over £300bn which is equivalent to the current value of all housing in Scotland. Lucian estimates the value of housing in Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster at over £200 billion, or15 per cent more than the total value of the housing stock of Wales.