Member Article

North East Buyer Barometer ignores stormy conditions

A survey has revealed that 42.5% of people in the North East believe the credit crunch has made no difference to how they view the property market.

Miller Homes, polled over five thousand new and potential home buyers across the UK to gauge their confidence in the property market.

More than half of North Easterners say they are more cautious about debt but just 12% say they are prepared to accept an inferior home to get into less debt.

Only 1.5% of the population are willing to borrow the maximum amount possible to get the home of their dreams.

Miller Homes North East sales director, Steve McElroy, said: “The results of our survey show that, despite endless negative reports about the property market – people still want to move and remain relatively unaffected by harsh headlines and horror stories about the fall of the property market.”

North Easterners also still believe property to be the soundest long term financial investment, with almost half saying that it is where they would choose to put their money over ISAs (37%), stocks and shares (9%) and bonds (nine per cent).

Despite the optimism uncovered in the survey, fears over mortgage lending and gathering enough deposit still concern new buyers.

Around 57% of first time buyers stated that the recession had rendered them less likely to purchase a new home in the current climate – with 18% blaming Gordon Brown for their situation.

He adds: “This is further evidence that the banks simply have to ease their overly strict lending criteria to help first time buyers achieve property dreams.

A North Easterners home is his Castle’ and with an overwhelming number of people in our poll still placing their faith in property ownership as a sound investment, it is important that everyone who wishes to buy, can do so.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .