The number of people in the UK who think that now is a good time to buy a home is at its lowest level since June 2008, new research shows.

Just 29% believe that now is a good time to buy, down from 40% three months ago, according to the latest property tracker report from the Building Societies Association.

At a time when there is a lot of talk about limiting house price growth, the report also indicates that new mortgage lending regulations, affordability constraints and media scrutiny may be beginning to have a limiting effect, suggesting that the intervention that is being discussed by the Bank of England and politians may not be necessary.

On house prices, 62% of Londoners say that there is a housing bubble in the city and 55% of people across the UK agree.
However, views about prices across the rest of the UK are very different with just 20% saying that they believe there is a bubble across the rest of the country.

Prices are now rising in all regions, but most remain under their 2007 peak.
Building new homes is seen as the most effective way of curbing house price inflation. This view was particularly strong amongst first time buyers where 40% saw this as the best solution.

When asked about their reaction if the Bank of England were to introduce measures making it harder to get a mortgage, 28% of first time buyers said that they would put their home buying plans on hold for the foreseeable future. Curbing Help to Buy is not seen as an effective solution with just 6% of the public thinking that this would work.

‘For decades successive governments have failed to address the problem of housing supply. The launch of the Help to Buy equity loan scheme just over a year ago has provided a much needed shot in the arm to the construction industry while the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee has had a beneficial effect on consumer confidence, but actual lending is low. There is clamour in some quarters for this scheme to be withdrawn or scaled back but in my view the impact would be negligible,’ said Paul Broadhead, head of mortgage policy at the BSA.

‘The single biggest issue in the market remains lack of supply. The population is increasing, household sizes are falling so there are more of them and all of this is leading to the pressure on prices which we are seeing in varying degrees across the country,’ he explained.

‘This quarters’ Property Tracker clearly shows that consumer confidence has cooled and that people are more cautious about buying,’ he added.

He pointed out that the Financial Policy Committee at the Bank of England has a wide range of tools intended to take heat out of the market. ‘I would urge caution as the challenges in raising a deposit and the recently introduced Mortgage Market Review regulations are beginning to have…