| UK
House Prices Situation: Fairly stable, growth continues
in some areas
UK
House Prices Forecast: Remaining strong in popular areas,
no change elsewhere
Soft
Landing For The Property Market? The Experts Think So
Despite
years of doom-and-gloom predictions of a property
market crash, it has not yet happened and does
not show any obvious signs of being about to do so,
according to a number of leading commentators on the
UK housing market.
In
a recent survey for The Guardian, none of the economists
interviewed predicted anything worse than a possible
gentle slowdown in housing prices over
the next year. Howard Archer, an economist at Global
Insight, said he believed that an ongoing shortage of
properties in some areas meant that "the slowdown
in house prices is likely to be only a gradual process."
Nick
Bate, an economist at bankers Merrill Lynch, observed
that while the market may have "weakened a touch
from the strength shown in late 2006", it remains
in good overall health.
HIPs
To Disrupt Property Market?
A
growing number of estate agents are predicting that
the impending introduction by the government of Home
Information Packs will have a disruptive effect on the
housing market, as sellers rush to
sell their homes before the planned June 1st introduction
date.
Paul
Smith, Chief Executive of estate agent Haart, said in
a recent interview that he was expecting "an extremely
buoyant spring market", as sellers sought to avoid
the cost and uncertainty of having to supply a HIP.
Indeed,
Haart are predicting that there could be an increase
of up to 20 per cent in the number of properties
entering the market over the next few months, which
may go some way to help alleviate a shortage of housing
supply in popular areas.
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