Optimisim on the UP!!
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) point to some optimism in the housing market. The group says new buyer enquiries in England and Wales rose for the third month in a row in January, with 16% more chartered surveyors reporting a rise as opposed to a fall.
Its monthly housing survey showed expectations that sales will rise have turned positive once again with 10% more chartered surveyors expecting sales to pick up soon. Optimism is most visible in London and across the south.
Housing transactions also remain at their lowest level since the survey began in 1978. The average number of transactions per agency over the last three months is now at 9.9, down from 10.0 in December.
Most chartered surveyors - 76.3% - expect house prices to continue to fall in the near term despite Halifax reporting last week that the average price of a home rose 1.9% in January.
wwww.theguardian.co.uk
(Tuesday, February 10, 2009)