By William Schomberg
LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Britain's housing market
suffered the most widespread price falls since 2009 last month
as the run of interest rate increases over the past year weighed
on would-be buyers, according to a survey published on Thursday.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) house
price balance, which measures the gap between the percentage of
surveyors seeing rises and falls in house prices, fell to -47,
the lowest since April 2009, from -42 in December.
A measure of interest from buyers also fell to -47, its
lowest since October last year.
Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at RICS, said the overall
mood of the market as measured by surveyors remained subdued.
"However, it is questionable how much downside to pricing
there is likely to be given that recent macro forecasts from the
Bank of England and others are now envisaging a less harsh
economic environment this year," Rubinsohn said.
The BoE last week said Britain's economy would probably fall
into recession in early 2023 and would only come out of it in
early 2024, a shorter period of contraction than in its previous
set of forecasts.
The RICS report showed surveyors were less pessimistic about
the outlook than in December with a measure of expected sales
over the next 12 months improving to -20 from -42.
Other housing market measures have also recently shown a
loss of momentum following the surge in demand seen during the
coronavirus pandemic.
A Reuters poll of economists and analysts in November
predicted house prices would fall around 5% this year having
surged by 28% since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
RICS said the rental market continued to show strong
interest from tenants with limited availability of stock.
(Reporting by William Schomberg; editing by David Milliken)
Reuters Messaging: william.schomberg.reuters.com@reuters.net))
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