House Sales Rise in June

There were 86,000 home sales in the UK last month according to HM Revenue and Customs, this marks a huge 21% rise when compared to may and a 15% year on year ascent.

The rise has also meant that the opening half of the year has seen a 21% rise against the same period in 2009.  However despite this, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has said that the figures mean that house sales are still subdued.

"Sales are still running well below the levels preceding the onset of the credit crunch, partly because of a shortage of mortgage finance as well as, until recently, the lack of stock on the market," a spokesman said.

Lenders have become sceptical that their mortgage lending will raise much further this year.

Earlier in the week, the Bank of England has warned that sales may be stopped growing faster by the tight supply of mortgages, this may become worse over the coming months.

 The renewed rise in house prices, which started in the spring of 2009, now seems to have reached a plateau, according to the most recent surveys from the Nationwide building society and the Halifax bank.

Rics is now predicting a fall in house prices over the latter part of the year, depending if the increasing number of homes for sale outnumbers the number of potential buyers.

Posted at 04:14PM Jul 21, 2010 by Marc Stenton in Mortgages & Housing Market  |  Comments[0]