United Kingdom house prices fell again in the three months to January but at the slowest rate in four months, according to a survey.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said today its seasonally adjusted house prices balance for January stood at -36, indicating a fall in prices for the sixth consecutive month but up from a downwardly revised -38 in the month before.
Although there was no significant change in new-buyer enquiries for the third month running, RICS said a view in some quarters that interest rates have peaked at 4.75 per cent helped lift agreed sales for the first time since April.
But with the stock of unsold properties having risen considerably over the past year, prospective buyers have greater bargaining power, and surveyors are therefore predicting mild price declines in the months ahead.
"Sellers remain unwilling to lower asking prices and, with buyers looking to secure a bargain, this has resulted in a rather slow recovery," said Mr Jeremy Leaf, RICS spokesman. He said the possibility of interest rate rises would also keep a lid on the market.
The Bank of England left borrowing costs steady for the sixth month in a row last week and economists are split over whether the next move will be up or down.
The need to slow the booming property market was one of the key reasons why the BoE increased rates five times in the last 18 months years as policymakers were concerned that double-digit house price increases were unsustainable.
But although the housing market has slowed noticeably since the middle of last year, policymakers have noted that prices turned out stronger than they anticipated in November.