Evidence grows of an end to the house price boom
House prices, estate agents for sale and to let. Signs of faltering demand in the housing market are prompting estate agents and analysts to suggest England’s house price boom may be ending.
Paul Smith, chief executive of the Haart agency — which has more than 100 branches — said: “We believe the nation has now neared the limit in terms of price rises.”
Inquiries declined in April at their second-highest rate since 2008, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors — a trend that Mike Prew, equity analyst at investment bank Jefferies, said “signals this slowdown could morph into a period of sustained house price deflation”. Drops in this Rics measure are strongly correlated with price falls about a year later, Mr Prew added.
“The balance of surveyors expecting...