House Prices To Rise After The Election, Surveyors Predict

House prices should rise after the election, RICS, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, is predicting in its latest report.

In its latest Housing Market survey, which reports on market activity in April, RICS is expecting to see sentiment in the housing market improve as better weather arrives and the uncertainty about the election diminishes.

A greater number of chartered surveyors reported a rise than a fall in house prices in April, compared to March, with London leading the way in house price inflation.

House price rises were also seen in every region in the UK except for Wales, Yorkshire and Humberside.

The number of completed sales rose for the first time in three months and the number of houses being marketed also fell, which influences the sales to stock ratio – a key indicator of future house price inflation, according to the surveyors.

When this indicator becomes more positive, as it now has for the first time in 2010, house price rises are expected to follow within the next few months.

So the housing market is showing signs of strength, as Jeremy Leaf, RICS spokesperson, comments:

“For much of 2010, the housing market has been under the shadow of the general election with the gap between supply and demand growing wider as potential house buyers opted to stand on the sidelines awaiting the outcome of the poll.

“However, the start of spring has seen renewed optimism with the good weather improving sentiment and surveyors expecting an increase in both sales and house prices. The housing market often sees an increase in new instructions in the early part of the year with sales boosted in the spring and this year has been no exception.”