A third of people believe that house prices in the UK will increase over the next 12 months, a consumer survey showed.
The Property Tracker from the Building Societies Association (BSA) showed that this was higher than three months ago, when a fifth of people thought house prices would increase. The BSA said this was the most positive sentiment since last year September and was likely influenced by the pause in base rate rises and falling mortgage pricing.
Other indices show house prices rising
House price indices from Nationwide and Halifax have also recorded growth in the last few months.
Just 24% of people think house prices will fall next year, which is lower than the 39% of people who said the same in September.
Mortgage affordability was still cited as the main barrier to homeownership, as cited by 68% of people. However, the lack of confidence appeared to be falling away as this was lower than the 71% of respondents who said this in September.
The sentiment towards raising a deposit also improved slightly, with 58% of people naming this as a barrier to homeownership compared to 60% in September.
There appeared to be growing concerns about job security, the report suggested, as 22% of people said this was a barrier against them owning a home, up from 19% in September.
Just 16% of respondents said it was a good time to buy a home and the BSA said this sentiment had remained around the same across its reports this year.
Some 41% of respondents said it was not a good time to buy a home, and this rose to 46% among first-time buyers.
Certainty over mortgage affordability
Homeowners seem relatively confident in their ability to keep up with mortgage payments over the next six months, as cited by 85% of respondents.
The BSA said this was relatively unchanged all year.
However, there was a rise to 5% in the proportion of people who were not confident about mortgage payments.
Among renters, three quarters said they felt confident about keeping up with housing costs.
