Stalling London house market falls behind Northern Ireland’s
THE SCOTTISH and Northern Irish housing markets are more buoyant than the stalled sector in London, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said today.
Overall the housing market is still rising – the number of surveyors reporting rising prices outweighed those reporting falling prices by a margin of seven per cent in January.
But in London, a net balance of 49 per cent said prices are on the slide.
By contrast a balance of 47 per cent in Northern Ireland and 38 per cent in Scotland said prices are rising.
The surveyors predicted a steady rise in prices over the forseeable future.
“The volume of home starts will still fall considerably short of the number of new households being formed, let alone making a dent in the historic shortfall of housing across all tenures,” said RICS’ chief economist Simon Rubinsohn.