Buyers ‘hold power’ in housing market

SIX out of ten of people wanting to move home believe the current market favours buyers, with Scots more likely to hold this opinion and Londoners the least likely, research released today shows.

While much of the housing market has stagnated, London has been boosted by demand from overseas buyers, and analysts have predicted this trend will continue in 2012 as the city prepares to host the Olympics.

Rightmove’s first Consumer Confidence Survey of 2012 found that 60 per cent of people believed that the balance of power lay with buyers with just 13 per cent describing it as a sellers’ market.

In Scotland, 68.3 per cent of people said they believed the market favours buyers compared with only 47.1 per cent of Londoners. Last week, research by the Bank of Scotland revealed that buying a home north of the Border was 6 per cent cheaper than renting.