Poll finds support for UK Government intervention to bring down house prices

Almost half of British people think something should be done at a Government level to bring down property prices and there is strong opposition to continued house price growth, a new poll has found.

Some 49% say they would back the Government attempting to bring house prices down a lot in their local area with 36% rejecting such a move, according to the survey from YouGov.

The research found that view differ considerably depending on whether people own their home or not. Home owners are against intervention by 51% to 35% while non-home owners support such a move by 68% to 14%.

There is marginally higher support for attempting to bring down house prices by a moderate amount at 52% versus 31%. Again, 68% of non-homeowners would be in favour of it, but support among home owners rises to 41%, although a plurality of 45% still don’t want it to happen.

Conversely, there is strong opposition to house prices increasing. While 24% of home owners back prices going up a little in their local area, 60% are against. Similarly, while only 17% support prices increasing by a moderate amount, 68% are against it and only 9% would support pushing them up a lot.

The policy home owners are most likely to support would be maintaining house prices at their current level with 45% in favour versus 38% against. However, this is offset by the fact that non-home owners are opposed to it by 54% to 23%. Similarly, the population as a whole are against keeping house prices the same by 45% to 36%.

Among the population at large there is a higher level of support for building a moderate number of new homes with 56% supporting this in their local area while 43% support a larger number of homes being built.

Unlike attitudes towards house price changes, there is far less of a difference between home owners’ and non-home owners’ opinions when it comes to the prospect of new homes being built in their local area. For instance, some 55% of home owners support moderate numbers of new homes, compared to 59% of non-home owners.

However, the research also found that home owners are more likely than non-home owners to specifically oppose new homes being built, whereas non-homeowners are more likely to give a ‘don’t know’ answer.

Kindly shared by Property Wire