People are less concerned about estate agents’ fees, negative equity and Stamp Duty than they were a year ago, while general confidence in home buying has bounced up.

The new 2015 Annual Homeowner Survey, conducted by YouGov, shows that people’s concerns about housing have receded right across the board last year.

The survey, conducted for the HomeOwners Alliance, conveyancing firm myhome move and BLP Insurance, shows that the top concerns are the ability for aspiring first-time buyers to get on the housing ladder and saving for a deposit – 83% cite these as serious problems.

However, even these are less worrying than this time last year, when 87% were worried about first-time buyers’ prospects and 86% concerned about saving for a deposit.

While they remain the top concerns, they are followed by worries about house prices (76%), the ability to get a mortgage (72%) and availability of housing (70%).

However, concern about negative equity has dropped from 64% to 49%. Fewer people are worried about Stamp Duty (64% were concerned last year, but down to 51% this year following December’s wholesale reforms).

Worries about being able to pay off the mortgage have also lessened, down from 70% last year to 65%.

Aspiration to own a home has also edged up slightly, from 68% to 69%.

Estate agent fees were seen as a problem by 64% of people surveyed last year, but down to 57% now.

The survey shows up some interesting contrasts, with aspiring home owners being much more worried about house prices than home owners, and Londoners being easily the most worried about house prices.

The sample size was 2,214 adults, of whom 1,390 were home owners.