Five Homebuyer Personalities Revealed

When it comes to buying a home, we can apparently be classifed as one of five character types.

Are you a wallflower or simply jumping on the bandwagon? An aspirant fledgling or do you admit to having been around the block? Confused? Well according to a new property survey, these are just four of the types of homebuyer personalities which may just define you.

Recent research by the Building Societies Association (BSA) has suggested that homebuyers fall into one of five personalities when describing their attitudes towards buying a home. Forming part of its `House Price Expectations' report, the BSA suggests that however people react to the current housing market, there is a personality type to describe each one.

Aspirant fledglings

Tired of pouring money down an ever deepening rent drain, aspirant fledglings possess a strong desire to own their own home and are generally optimistic about the housing market. Many fledglings are concerned that they may be left behind if they do not buy soon, with their dream home becoming out of reach.

Attitudes such as these are not helped by reports on escalating house prices. Building society Stroud and Swindon recently suggested that average house prices could hit the £1 million mark within 17 years should current growth trends continue.

Sensational statistics like these only fuel worries for desperate first time buyers struggling to get their first foot on the ladder. This group were also found to be more easily swayed by media and television reports, and were more likely to seek advice through these channels, as well as through friends and family.

Been around the block

Accounting for the majority of the 1,000 people surveyed, those who have `been around the block' are classically homeowners who are more likely to rely on their own analysis of the market than media reports.

Although most in this category accept that house prices could fall, these people are generally in for the long-term as opposed to wanting to make a quick buck, hence get value from owning their own homes.

Savvy long-haulers

With an eye on the bigger property picture, long-haulers generally invest in property over the long-term, having considered other investment options available to them.

These investors tend to give greater consideration to the timing of their purchase than homebuyers do, generally ignoring short-term proclamations from property investment companies. Media and television reports, which only this month suggested that property prices were both rising and falling, remain relatively unpersuasive to them, with long term trends holding more weight with their judgment.

Bandwagoners

As the name suggests, Bandwagoners generally buy property because they have seen other investors succeed, and enter the market in hope of emulating gains made by their predecessors.

These people are often easily swayed by the media, seduced by television reports about how lucrative buy-to let ventures can be. With the buy-to let market apparently remaining buoyant, these investors continue to jump on the property bandwagon, although they now make up the smallest group of the five.

Wallflowers

Often floating between several groups, Wallflowers are currently standing on the property sidelines, carefully considering the timing of their purchase and waiting for property prices to fall.

Most in this category feel that property is overpriced, and whilst bodies such as The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) have stated that the easing of house prices is not necessarily a pre-cursor to a crash, wallflowers remain expectant, or at least hopeful that property prices will fall in the next year.

Commenting on their findings, Adrian Coles, Director General of the BSA said: `People are motivated by a variety of reasons to enter the property market, a diversity that is likely to add to the resilience of the market should house price growth decrease or even fall.

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