Big jump in house price confidence

The company's monthly confidence tracker survey shows that more people now expect prices to rise than at any time since the survey was introduced in July 2009.

A huge 68% of those questioned say that they expect house prices to rise over the next 12 months compared to just 57% in November. Interestingly, 1 in 5 of these expects the rise to potentially be as high as 10%.

When asked if they are benefiting from the current record low level of interest rates a massive 69% said yes; again the highest number since the survey began. But the positive news doesn't end there because 85% of respondents said that right now is a good time to buy UK property and 66% said that they are considering purchasing a property overseas; also the highest since the survey began and an increase of 21% on last month.

Commenting on the results Kevin Wilkes, managing director of the Worldwide Property Group, said: "This just goes to show that people are getting on with their lives and putting economic fears behind them. We have seen a dramatic increase in enquiries over the last 6 weeks, and with the optimism that a new year brings we have no reason to believe that this will not continue."