This is according to Alliance & Leicester’s latest survey on intentions to move. With fifteen per cent of Britons planning to buy a home in the next two years, intentions to move are at their highest level since July2001.
Of those surveyed before the rate cut on 10 July, 13 per cent planned a move within the next two years. Of those surveyed after the decrease, 16 per cent said they were planning to buy a property within the same period.
This indicates that the housing market remains robust, despite warnings of price falls and increasing regional variations in house price inflation. Men are particularly bullish, with 17 per cent indicating that they are planning a move within two years, compared to 12 per cent of women.
Twenty-somethings continue to drive demand, with three in ten (30 per cent) planning a move in the next two years, up from 27 per cent last quarter and up from 25 per cent in Summer 2002, and this leaps to more than one in three (34 per cent) of people in their twenties questioned after the rate cut.
Paul Cooper, head of mortgages at Alliance & Leicester, said: "Even without the fall in base rate, the proportion of people looking to move over the next two years rose this quarter. This shows that people are confident that buying property is still a good investment. There can be little doubt that interest rates being at a 55-year low is helping to encourage people to think about buying property.”
