Rics comments on latest house prices

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 11:12:59 GMT

Despite recent optimism that house prices are starting to pick up again, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has warned that the immediate future of the UK property market is still far from clear.

The comments come on the back of new data released by the Halifax, which show that house prices suffered an average decline of 0.5 per cent over the course of June.

While this comes on the back of a 2.6 per cent rise in May and has helped to ease the annual rate of decline from 16.3 to 15 per cent, some observers are still reluctant to declare that the worst is over for the market.

Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at Rics, said: "The [Halifax figures] provides a timely reminder that despite the better news flow emerging from the housing market it is far from clear that prices have bottomed.

"The combination of further job losses and a continuing lack of mortgage finance remain major headwinds for the market."

These latest property price figures come soon after Nationwide reported that the cost of a typical home in the UK rose for the third time in four months in June, bringing the total market increase since February to six per cent.


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