The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has said that the optimism regarding a possible upturn in the housing market following some figures released earlier this year, has not been sustained and the economic downturn is bound to have a negative effect.
RICS said that 19% more surveyors reported price falls rather than rises and it put the mildly encouraging figures down to first-time buyers rushing to beat the end of the stamp duty holiday on properties below the price of £250,000. It added that recent economic data which has put the country back into recession has undoubtedly eroded confidence in the housing market.
Halifax has reported that house prices fell by 2.4% in April, taking £4,000 off the price of the average property with all areas of the country affected and only London bucking the trend. In the capital 86% of surveyors had prices stable or rising, whereas in Wales and Northern Ireland 36% and 50% respectively reported falls.
The RICS did, however, add that 63% of surveyors who responded said there had been no change in prices and of those who did report a fall, the vast majority were in the 0-2% range.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/may/08/house-prices-falling-char...