Healthy employment market to keep house prices up, says Rics

The strong employment situation in the UK will be a major factor in preventing a significant decline of house prices, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has said.

Giving his response to yesterday's Department for Communities and Local Government house price figures, which showed a 0.8 per cent fall in November, Rics chief economist Simon Rubinsohn predicted that the market would show signs of "weakness" in the coming months, but would not experience a slump.

He stated: "In the absence of a marked increase in redundancies, the level of distress sales of property will remain relatively subdued."

In addition to this, Mr Rubinsohn said, cuts in interest rates would help the market gradually recover as first-time buyers were drawn back into the market.

Such news may be of interest to those looking at the self build option, as this could suggest the value of such a house will be more likely to rise than fall in the medium term.

Yesterday, finance website Motley Fool noted that since 1983 house prices have risen in five years out of every six, (20 out of 24), according to Halifax figures.

The last year to see a fall in prices was 1995.


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