House Prices Rise But Abolition Of HIPs Tempts House Sellers

House prices rose slightly in May, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), however the abolition of HIPS also tempted more sellers to place their home on the market.

In its latest monthly report into the state of the UK housing market, surveyors reported house price rises in most regions of the country in May. London and the South East saw the strongest price rises.

Northern Ireland, Wales, Yorkshire and Humberside and the West Midlands were the exceptions where small falls in house prices were reported .

Although buyer interest increased in May, there was a sharp increase in the number of new instructions as sellers were tempted to place their properties on the market after the abolition of HIPS by the coalition government.

This meant that the sales to stock ratio, which compares the number of properties available against the number of completed transactions, and is a key indicator for the trends in the property market, fell.

Surveyors are predicting that the abolition of HIPs could lead to a 15% increase in new instructions in the next few months.

On the whole, surveyors are slightly optimistic about the volume of house sales, but their price expectations are moderating, probably because of the fall in the sales to stock ratio.