The exchange revealed the true extent of the public's gloomy house price outlook after it saw a surge in investors looking to use its platform to take advantage of the current market volatility.
The Spreadfair exchange saw its total transactions for the month generate an equivalent of £4.8m worth of property, with their eagerness to capitalise on today's turbulence indicating widespread uncertainty over the direction of property prices.
Spreadfair revealed that a large proportion of its clients had been looking to reduce their exposure to unstable property prices by betting that that the value of the average UK house will be less than the current prediction of £169,000 by December 2010.
By contrast, other clients believe the market will not fall this far and are looking to buy exposure to the market at significantly discounted levels.
Nick Sproule, head of key accounts at Spreadfair, said the figures left little doubt that Britons were increasingly nervous about the property market, a feeling which is likely to have intensified after recent talks of a US recession.
He said: “Our clients are currently predicting a further 15 per cent fall in the average UK house price by December 2010 and that would represent one of the biggest corrections Spreadfair has seen to date."
Spreadfair's prices are determined by clients’ ability to place their own orders on the exchange and are therefore indicative of current sentiment in the housing market.
