The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says figures from Nationwide showing house prices climbed 0.9% last month “provides further evidence that the residential property market appears to have found a floor, at least for the time being”. But it warned the recovery could be temporary because of the threat of job losses for the remainder of the year and banks setting high hurdles for mortgage borrowers.
Capital Economics said it remained "sceptical" that the Nationwide number was the start of a sustained upward trend. "House prices are still overvalued, the recovery in activity appears to be wavering, unemployment is set to rise further and credit conditions remain tight," said property economist Seema Shah.
The average cost of a property in England and Wales dropped by just 0.2% during the month, following a slide of the same amount in April, according to the Land Registry. Hometrack saw UK home price completely unchanged from the previous month which is as good as bullish these days.
Rightmove’s asking price index for June declining 0.4% (or from £227,441 to £226,436). They say the mortgage famine exacerbated by rising lender margins which prevents equity-poor first-time buyers from mopping-up properties at the entry end of the market.
The latest RICS housing market survey has reported that houses are selling at an average of 11% below asking price which despite struggling home sales in the North (London deals closing at 97% of ask and the North as low as 74%) underscores the recovery we have seen in HPI forwards of late.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Is the house price crash over?
