Xinhua, London :
House prices in Britain moderated and buyer demand declined for second consecutive month, according to a latest survey published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Thursday.
The number of agreed house sales also dipped for the first time since September 2012, with more stable price expectations over the next three months. A net balance of 9 percent of surveyors were now expecting prices to rise, rather than fall, down from 51 percent at the start of the year, according to the survey.
“The concern over a potential rise in interest rates could be a contributing factor to the fall in buyer interest and the number of agreed house sales,” said Simon Rubinsohn, Chief Economist of RICS.
Prices over the next 12 months were still projected by surveyors to rise over the next year by 2.3 percent across the whole country, which is down from 3.7 percent at the start of 2014, the survey showed.
The housing market was mixed at a national level.
