Above:A fifth of UK homeowners have seen the value of their property already increase in 2016.

As Knight Frank release its House Price Sentiment Index, homeowners in the UK are confident the value of their property will increase in 2016.

Summary:

• A fifth of UK homeowners have seen the value of their property already increase in 2016
• According to Knight Frank’s House Price Sentiment Index, property prices are expected to continue to rise over the next 12 months
• The outlook for the UK property market growth is the strongest since June 2015

Homeowners across the UK expect the value of their property to rise in 2016.

Of the households surveyed by Knight Frank and Markit Economics, 20.9% of the 1,500 respondents across the UK said that the value of their home had risen over the last month. As part of their House Price Sentiment Index, Knight Frank assigns a HPSI reading – in this case, the reading registered at 58.7 in January for house price growth.

This is the 34th consecutive month that the reading has been above 50. With any figure over 50 indicating that prices are rising, the index demonstrates the continued strength and expected growth of the UK property market in 2016.

January’s reading was a slight decrease from the 59.4 recorded in December, but returns the index to the same level as seen in November. It is just slightly higher than the average reading of 58.5 recorded throughout 2015, but remains below the peak of 63.2 in May 2014, reflecting the stabilisation in average UK house price growth seen since then.

Above:Gráinne Gilmore, Head of UK Residential Research at Knight Frank said Households expect house prices to rise again in 2016.

Gráinne Gilmore, Head of UK Residential Research at Knight Frank, said: “Households expect house prices to rise again in 2016. The future sentiment index is now sitting just above where it was in January 2015, and we now know that UK house prices climbed by 4.5% during the course of the year. The latest house price sentiment index suggests that monetary and political housing policies have not had a dramatic impact on households’ assessment and outlook for the value of their property.”

The future HPSI, which measures what households think will happen to the value of their property over the next year, rose slightly in January to 70.5 from December’s 70.3. This is the highest reading since June 2015, but remains below the peak of 75.1 reached in May 2014.

Source: Select Property