Of these, some 47% said they’ve felt a ‘presence’ in their home, 29% claimed they have experienced strange and unearthly chills around the property, and 16% of those living in a suspected haunted house revealed that they had actually seen a ghost there.
Whilst there were some who claimed to have seen a spectre haunting their home, others had experienced the aftermath of spiritual activity, according to a Halloween poll from Ocean Finance.
A fifth said they had seen items around their property move on their own, whether actually witnessing things flying around or finding that items were not where they had left them.
However it is not something home owners should boast about if they are selling as another survey for Ocean found that 30% of people would be put off buying a property if someone had recently died there.
Nearly a quarter, 23%, said that a property’s proximity to a graveyard could dissuade them from buying, and 9% even admitted that they would decide against a house if its address was ‘unlucky’ number 13.
However, superstitious and psychic beliefs are not all bad news for sellers. Some 26% said that when they had been to view a house or flat they were interested in buying, they felt an aura around the property and 77% of these said that the property’s aura had been positive, with the remaining 23% sensing a negative aura.
A property’s aura even influenced some people’s decision to buy. Of those who claimed to have felt an aura at a property, 58% said that it had encouraged them to move in. Just 20% said that the presence of an aura had dissuaded them from buying a home, showing that in general, house sellers can be thankful for these ‘feelings’.
‘It seems that some people in Britain are less pragmatic than they seem. With so many convinced that they have a ghostly guest at home, it’s not surprising that it’s influencing some house buyers’ decision on whether to move into a property,’ said Ian Williams, spokesman for Ocean Finance.