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UK House Prices Situation: Prices still high but weakening
nationally
UK
House Prices Forecast: 5% - 10% fall in prices over the
next 18 months
Surveyors
Report Worst Results Since 1978
The
RICS monthly survey of chartered surveyors has found that
78.8% more surveyors reported falling prices in March
than rising prices.
The
results are the worst since the survey began in 1978 and
are markedly worse than February's results, in which 65.7%
more surveyors saw a fall in prices than a rise in house
prices.
The
number of new buyer enquiries fell for the sixteenth consecutive
month, agreed sales were also down by 20% and new instructions
to sell also fell. This combination of trends suggests
that growing numbers of buyers and sellers are happy to
sit tight for the time being and see what happens - and
shows that forced selling by people in financial difficulties
has not yet become a problem.
Commenting
on the survey's results, RICS spokesman Jeremy Leaf said
that "The slowdown in prices is directly attributable
to a lack of available finance which has hit demand. However,
until new [housing] supply increases dramatically a significant
crash remains unlikely."
RICS
believes that the primary cause of the falling demand
is a lack of available mortgage finance - not a shortage
of properties for sale. Indeed, the average number of
unsold properties on each surveyor's books remained virtually
unchanged in March.
Government
House Price Figures Show Fall
The
latest government housing figures show that house
prices fell by an average of 1.6% in February,
confirming the trends highlighted by the Nationwide and
Halifax house price indices.
The
figures, published by the Department for Communities and
Local Government (DCLG) showed that the annual growth
rate for house prices fell to 6.7% from
8% in January and that flat owners were particularly badly
hit, with flat prices falling by 2.9% in February alone.
The
DCLG's house price survey lags behind most other house
price surveys because it uses data on completed mortgages,
rather than mortgage offers. However, it includes data
from 50 different mortgage lenders and is considered a
fairly accurate reflection of housing market activity.
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