There has been a shift in people’s views of what will happen to the value of their property following warnings from Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, that prices could fall in the future.

According to Nationwide Building Society’s new monthly consumer confidence report, while most people (52%) expect their homes to continue to rise in value over the next six months, this is significantly less than the 66% who felt this way before Mr King’s comments made in a speech to the CBI in Glasgow on 14 June.

Research for Nationwide, conducted before and after Mr King’s speech shows that the number of people who believe their homes will lose value by the year end has doubled, but even so, remains low at only 10%, compared with 5% before Mr King’s speech.

Looking at the wider economy, the report shows that only one in three people think now is a good time to make a major purchase such as a house or car. However people are evenly split over whether the economy is moving in the right direction or not.

Commenting on these figures, Nationwide executive director Stuart Bernau said: "Although more people are pessimistic about the future value of their homes, over half still expect them to be worth more by the end of the year.”

“The short term economy continues to look robust with the jobs market remaining strong and interest rates continuing to be at historically low levels despite recent rises in the base rate. People feel more cautious about the state of the economy in six months time however, and this may lead to them revising future purchasing decisions."