UK Home Owners Stay Put
RatedPeople.com, the UK’s leading online trade recommendation service, questioned over 2,000 homeowners to find out how recent market changes have impacted on their plans.
It’s not particularly surprising to note that the research indicated that over 2.7 million homeowners planning to move in 2008 have performed a dramatic u-turn in their plans as a result of uncertainty about the current UK housing market.
Nearly two thirds of the 4.5 million homeowners planning to move reported that they now intend to stay put and improve on their existing property, with nearly a quarter of these even anticipating a wait of up to two years before their next move.
With mortgage approvals plummeting, Ratepeople.com claim an upward trend correlation for home improvement and repairs - an increase of 10% over the last three months.
Other interesting trends produced from the research include:
• Extensions named as the most common planned improvement for 2008 (23%).
• 31% of extension plans include plans for loft conversions - which on average lead to a 15% increase in value.
• The kitchen came out on top as the most expensive room in the house.
The top ten league table of areas ‘improving not moving’ in the next two years as a result of fears about the property market were: (% of homeowners)
1. Shropshire (91 per cent)
2. Essex (87 per cent)
3. Bucks (81 per cent)
4. Bedfordshire (75 per cent)
5. Hertfordshire (74 per cent)
6. Kent (72 per cent)
7. Devon (71 per cent)
8. Cornwall (67 per cent)
9. Staffordshire (66 per cent)
10. Derbyshire (65 per cent)
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