A new poll has revealed surprising attitudes to the UK's current house price malaise…

A recent poll by the BBC found that more people want house prices to fall than to rise. The poll of 1,005 people found that only 22% said they wanted prices to go up while 28% said they wanted house prices to fall. Barely a fifth of people want house prices to rise - fewer than the number of people who want them to fall.

Nearly half of the people who responded, or 46%, said they wanted them to stay the same. The findings cast doubt on whether the political and economic damage done by falling prices is as serious as has been feared. The poll was commissioned after makers of the BBC2 TV series The Truth About Property came across a surprisingly large number of people who wanted house prices to drop.

Economic benefits

Price falls bring economic benefits not just to first-time buyers but to any homeowner who wants to trade up to a larger or more valuable property. Respondents were also asked if a fall in house prices of more than 10% would make them more likely to cut back on household spending such as clothes, leisure and groceries.

More than 60% of people said it would either make no difference or would make them likely to spend more. Only a minority - 38% - said it would make them more likely to cut back. Nearly a third of homeowners have no mortgage on their homes - meaning no risk of negative equity. And the programme reveals to what extent house prices would have to fall to put the average borrower in negative equity.