Housing Market Recovery Picking Up Pace

Nicky Burridge

THE housing market in February showed its strongest rise in prices in nearly two years, research shows.

A survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors shows that 17 per cent more of its members reported price rises during February compared with those who said there had been falls.

The figure is well up on the balance of 9 per cent of surveyors who reported rises in January, and shows the strongest market since June 2004.

Properties are beginning to sell more quickly than last year, and surveyors' confidence in future price rises has hit its highest level for nearly two years.

Modest

While the South and Scotland saw strong price rises, increases were more modest in the north and fell slightly in the Midlands.

Surveyors in London were particularly upbeat, with a balance of 49 per cent saying house prices had risen.

It was the first time that prices in the capital had clearly outperformed the rest of the country since the late 1990s.

Institution spokesman James Scott-Lee said: "Traditionally, where London goes the rest of the market follows, and agents will be hoping this is the starting gun on wider, firmer housing market growth as buyers begin to compete more aggressively.

"Overall, the national picture shows a pick-up in family two and three-bedroom houses."