House price decline slowest in a year in March
According to industry official the decline of house prices across England and Wales continued in March, but was at its slowest level in the space of a year. In addition to this there was also an increase in sales levels, which picked up from record lows.
The data came from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. However, despite the encouraging figures most industry officials have warned that the property market is not out of the water yet, although some have suggested that house prices will soon start to increase again.
One financial industry official said: “There are tentative signs here of stronger housing activity. But, so far, any recovery does not seem to be strong enough to stop house prices falling. As with other indicators, there are signs that the pace of recession is easing, but not yet signs that could genuinely qualify as recovery.”
The Council of Mortgage Lenders also released figures at the same time, indicating that house prices had fallen by one fifth in March compared to their peak in October of 2007.
Officials from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors have given some encouraging news, stating that buyer interest in the mortgage and property market has increased over recent months, the level of mortgage approvals has increase, and property sales levels have picked up, although compared to a year ago all are still relatively low. However, RICS said that they all pointed to towards greater levels of activity in the housing market.
One official from RICS said: “The tentative signs of a pick-up in activity have become more broadly based over the past month. The higher level of buyer interest is feeding through into actual sales.”
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