Property prices to rise

Demand for homes is strong but a shortage of available properties is going to push prices up over the next three months.

Would be sellers are still refusing to bring their properties to market in the hope that prices will rise – and the way in which many big contractors have mothballed major estates leaving them in a half-finished state is also adding to the shortage of homes.

These factors plus the hugely-damaging mortgage ‘drought’ caused by bankers who still remain shy of lending – or who demand a criteria which is almost impossible to fulfil – will almost certainly guarantee an increase in prices.

The Treasury’s Asset-backed Guarantee Scheme – which was supposed to help ease the shortage of mortgage finance – has been criticised by politicians and property experts as an insufficiently bold initiative whose presence will do little to reduce the crisis.