We've become a nation so obsessed with monitoring house price fluctuations that 14% of us are actually pretending to move just to find out what our home is worth.

That’s the view of the Woolwich, Barclays mortgage arm, who have carried out research and labelled this out of the ordinary behaviour as 'phantom movers syndrome'.

The research studies the lengths people go to in order to stay in touch with house price changes and reveals that in the last six months:

• 14 per cent (more than one in ten) of those questioned have viewed other properties – with no actual intention of buying.
• 9 per cent have had their property valued with no genuine intention of selling.
• And 11 per cent have spotted a 'For Sale' sign in their street and called to enquire about the asking price.

Less surprising, the research shows over half (56 per cent) have scoured their local newspaper to monitor house prices and 47 per cent admit to looking in estate agents' windows to check local property values. Over a third say that when they visit somewhere new, they scan a local estate agent's window for house prices.

And far from dissuading people from this upsetting and time wasting behaviour, some estate agents actually encourage it. “We find that we are regularly invited out to people's houses who do not want to sell," said one estate agent partner in Esher, Surrey. "We have no problem with it at all. In fact, we encourage it. We are working on the basis that in five, 10, 15 or 20 years we will get the business eventually."

Andy Gray, head of mortgages for The Woolwich, commented on the findings: "The property market is clearly at the centre of much media debate and speculation and it's inevitable that people will be interested in what's happening to the value of their home.”

“The housing market has slowed this year and will continue to slow as we enter 2004 so homeowners now need to view their home as a place of enjoyment and not focus on short term property market gains."

More nosey nuggets:

The Welsh are the nosiest neighbours with 24 per cent admitting they have viewed properties just to check their market worth, although they have no intention of moving (compared to the national average of 14 per cent).

Easterners and South Westerners are most likely to go through a phantom property valuation of their property to check its worth, with no desire to sell (12 percent compared to the national average of 9 per cent).

Londoners like to keep up-to-date price data at their fingertips with 18 per cent say they have used the internet to check property values, three times more than respondents in the West Midlands (compared to the national average of 13 per cent).