Rising expectations for house price growth

We had a Chartered Surveyor come to visit us yesterday afternoon.

Our head office, Sundial House in Cranleigh, is the asset of a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) and the SIPP trustees need to have it valued at regular intervals.

This enables them to establish an insurance value for rebuilding the offices (should they somehow be accidentally destroyed or demolished) and also provides an investment valuation for the pension scheme.

Surveyors gather a large amount of data in order to calculate an accurate valuation. They are very good at what they do.

A new survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has found that expectations for future house price price is at its highest level in over 14 years.

The survey found that 59% of surveyors during November expect house prices to rise during the following three months.

This represents the highest reading since September 1999.

It was interesting to note that every region of the UK saw price rises for the second successive month.

This suggests that house prices are starting to respond positively to Government incentives including Funding for Lending and the Help to Buy scheme.

Commenting on the survey results, the RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said:

“It’s no secret that the housing market is on the way up and prices are surging ahead in many parts of the country.

“The Bank of England’s recent decision to withdraw the Funding for Lending scheme – which allows banks to borrow more cheaply and pass the benefits on to mortgage applicants – could well have some impact on the number of people able to purchase a home.

“Although the improvement in wholesale and retail funding markets may mean the impact on mortgages is relatively limited.

“One thing we are very concerned about, however, is the lack of both new and existing homes coming on to the market.

“As the Chancellor pointed out last week, housebuilding is on the up but it is rising nowhere near quickly enough to make up the shortfall that has built up in recent years.”

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