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Housing woe over 'within a year'?

A new survey has revealed widespread optimism amongst Estate Agents about the UK housing market.

According to the survey by Abbey:

- Nearly two-thirds of estate agents expect house prices to stop falling within the next 12 months.

- Around 61% of estate agents said they expected the property market to begin recovering within a year.

- 28% thought it would take between one and two years before prices stabilized.

- 7% thought prices would continue to fall for at least the next three years

- 3% thought the current downturn would last even longer.

- Eight out of 10 homeowners said they were delaying a decision on whether or not to move to see if prices fell further

- 7% hoped to take advantage of depressed prices in the coming year by either trading up the ladder or selling their home and moving into rented accommodation

. Phil Cliff, director of Abbey Mortgages, commented: "Estate agents and homeowners believe that, despite current movements in house prices, we are unlikely to experience a really prolonged period of house price falls.

"Most think the period of decline will be over within a year and a very small minority think it will last longer than two to three years.

"While this is 'light at the end of the tunnel', it implies that estate agents and homeowners are bracing themselves for further falls in the very near future."