House prices stem declines
Another industry survey has indicated that the UK housing market has bottomed out with prices flat in November, the best monthly performance in more than a year.
Hometrack said prices in England and Wales were flat in November, leaving house prices 2.5% lower on the year. It was the first time Hometrack's survey has not shown a fall in 16 months.
The average UK house prices remained steady at £160,700, just below the peak of £167,700 recorded last summer.
(Article continues below)Advertisement
Hometrack's Richard Donnell said, "A move to more realistic pricing of property over the last year, combined with the cut in interest rates in August 2005 has resulted in some pent-up demand feeding back into the market over recent months."
While the survey demonstrates an improvement in the market it remains the buyers domain with the average time taken to sell a property now totalling 8 weeks, up from 7.1 a year ago.
Last week property website RightMove said prices climbed 0.8% between October 9 and November 12 compared with the previous period, its biggest recorded rise since April this year.
