UK housing market stabilising

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UK housing market stabilising

UK house prices fell in March leading to an increase in sales activity.

According to the Hometrack survey, prices fell for the ninth consecutive month, albeit by just 0.1 per cent. This follows a three month trend of falling price reductions.

The decrease in prices coincided with an increase in sales activity of 16.5 per cent on February's figure and a fall in the length of sales from 7.6 weeks to 7.4.

According to John Wriglesworth, Hometrack's housing economist the nine month deflation of house prices looks set to end, and a flattening out of the market should see an increase in the number of house sales. He also claimed that buyers were not getting substantial discounts on asking prices suggesting that the market was improving.

Commenting on the reasons behind the changes in the market Mr Wriglesworth said: "Interest rates look set to remain stable over the months leading up to the May election, and the Chancellor's raising of the stamp duty threshold is likely to have helped restore further buyer confidence. Meanwhile lenders continue to offer exceedingly competitive mortgage deals on ever higher multiples of incomes. We are confident that house prices will start rising over the next few months and we are therefore raising our 2005 full year house price inflation forecast from 0 per cent to 3 per cent."

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