Residential property prices declined further in the three months ending February, according to the latest figures published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). RICS’ seasonally adjusted home price balance fell to -6 from -4 in the three months to January, signalling broadly stable prices. Economists had expected an improvement to -2 from January.
However, despite the sluggish nature of the market in recent months, the non-seasonally adjusted balance measuring property professionals’ projections for the change in prices over the next 12 months increased to a very encouraging +25 – the highest in three years – from +18 in January.
Positive Projections – Property Price Changes
Furthermore, RICS report that home sales reached their highest level since the latter part of 2010.“ The housing market now appears to be picking up across most parts of the UK,” said Peter Bolton King, global residential director at RICS. He added: “This may, in part, be down to the growing availability of mortgage finance through schemes such as Funding for Lending,” he added, referring to a central bank initiative that provides cheap funding to banks to encourage them to lend. “However, even with activity running at its best level since the middle of 2010, it is still well down on its pre-crisis norm.”
Article courtesy of Property Investor Today“”
