Mortgage brokers are confident about prospects for the housing market during 2006, according to a new survey.

Mortgage brokers are confident about prospects for the housing market during 2006, according to a new survey.

The research shows that 65 per cent of brokers believe that house prices will rise this year, while 31 per cent expect them to broadly remain the same as 2005.

Of the approximately 1,500 mortgage brokers who participated in January's survey, only four per cent believed that property prices would devalue during the coming year.

More than 80 per cent either believe that more buyers will enter the property market or that numbers will roughly stay the same.

Carried out by UCB Home loans, Nationwide's lender, the research demonstrates that more than 90 per cent believe that interest rates will either fall or remain at their present rate. The Bank of England's monetary policy committee last cut interest rates in August 2005 to 4.5 per cent.

Keith Astill, UCB Home Loans managing director, said: "Brokers obviously see the housing market faring reasonably well this year and their views are broadly in line with our own."