According to Rightmove, in January 2009 only 10% of survey respondents believed house prices would increase in the next 12 months, however that same survey conducted in January 2010 has discovered that 53% of all respondents believe that house prices will increase this year, providing a very encouraging indication from a consumer viewpoint of how prices might perform.

Miles Shipside, Rightmove’s commercial director, said: “Given the looming election and the talk of pending austerity packages ahead, this consumer survey highlights a surprisingly positive property price outlook.”

Rightmove stated that as the UK is on the verge of exiting the recession , the current conditions of house price stability have provided a sufficient level of confidence for more home-hunters to re-enter the market. This is backed up by Rightmove’s website which recorded record levels of traffic in the first few weeks of 2010. This coincided with the average UK asking price increasing by +1.2% in the first week of January 2010.

Shipside said: “The property market is in a virtuous circle scenario, where consumers are seeing less property up for sale and fresh to the market property selling more quickly. That rightly gives them the impression that we are over the worst of the recent price falls, and that there is likely to be upward pressure on prices.”