House prices rising £4 a day

Published 16th Dec 2009

New figures from a leading property website show value of UK homes has grown £39 billion in 2009


The value of UK homes has risen by £39 billion this year, after slumping £811 billion in 2008, figures from Zoopla, a leading property website, show.

It said that the value of the average home has been rising £4 a day and is currently worth £205,591, up 0.7 per cent on a year ago. The value of the average home fell by £86 a day in 2008.

The figures support further evidence of a rebounding housing market from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which said the proportion of estate agents reporting an increase rather than a decrease in house prices was at its highest for three years.

More than a third of surveyors reported rising rather than falling prices in the past three months, up from 34 per cent in October and the highest quarterly reading since November 2006.

The rise in house prices recorded over the last nine months has been attributed to a shortage of sellers in the market, fuelling fears that prices will fall again in the new year when more housing stock is made available. Housing experts expect prices to slip by up to 10 per cent in 2010.

Nicholas Leeming, commercial director of Zoopla.co.uk, said: “2008 was undoubtedly the annus horribilis for homeowners. But, property prices have stabilised this year, rising gradually since April after a fairly weak first quarter.

“We are still a long way from the values seen before the recession took hold, but the housing market has not worsened in 2009 as some had feared and recovery signs are starting to take hold."

The total value of housing stock in the UK is currently £5.3 trillion, according to Zoopla, still considerably lower than the peak in 2007 of £6.1 trillion. Prices in England have shown the biggest increase, with a 0.9 per cent rise in the last year. However, house prices in Wales continued to fall by 2.5 per cent.

Source: ' Times '

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