Nosey Britain: 2 in 5 look up friends homes online

Posted: 18/04/2016

Obviously for us Brits, it appears the temptation to look up the house prices of our friends and family is irresistible, according to new research. The number of snooping Brits is on the rise as more and more people are going out of their way to check out how much their nearest and dearest payed for their properties.

Research exposed that 38% Britons have committed the ultimate nosey crime, with people admitting to spying on friends, family, neighbours and 10% on colleagues.

Out of 19 million people in the UK who have sneakily searched for their loved ones postcodes, 31% looked up their friends’ houses, 38% looked up the prices of members of their family’s homes and 52% checked out how much their neighbours’ houses cost.

The curtain twitching Brits also confessed to looking up the homes of ex-partners and potential other halves.

However, it’s not only the price of property people are eyeing up, the research suggests that the reasons people are searching house prices ranged from pure unadulterated nosiness to fantasising about their dream home.

The study found that collectively, 63% of Brits owned up to window shopping homes online that in all honesty – they had no intention of buying.

The Head of Direct Line Insurance said: “We are a nation of property obsessives with very good reason”. She continued “… becoming a homeowner or even climbing the ladder in the UK is a huge challenge and aspiration for many”. “Property sites…have become something of a past-time for millions of people”.

The percentage of people searching for property with no intent to buy was the highest in Sheffield, with 74% of people that browse property websites aimlessly. Liverpool had one of the lowest percentages out of the main cities with 61% ties with Edinburgh and Brighton.

The most popular reason people searched for properties was to keep an eye on local property prices (60%). While 34% of people admitted it was to daydream about homes they could never afford. The least popular motivations for looking up houses were to check the value of their own home (26%) and to check the house prices in a new area they had visited (21%).

Whatever the reasons, it is clear that an increasing number of people in the UK are becoming more interested in property prices. Although, who can blame us wen becoming a homeowner in todays’ property climate is so difficult for so many?