RICS: House prices will continue to rise

House prices will continue to rise into the new year due to the imbalance between buyer interest and available housing stock, it has been claimed.

The statement from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) follows the recent publication of Nationwide house price data which showed prices had increased by 0.5 per cent in November compared to the previous month.

Commenting on recent figures, RICS said a "key driver" of the rebound in prices was a lack of new properties entering the market.

Prices are now increasing at a slower rate than earlier in the year, according to the report, which RICS said could be attributed to a slight increase in the number of properties being put up for sale.

"The modest increase in supply could help to explain why there has been some slackening in the pace of price gains over the past few months," said a RICS spokesman.

"Nevertheless, the imbalance between buyer interest and the available stock of property is still sufficiently large to point to further price increases into the new year."

The Nationwide report showed that the average house price in the UK property currently stands at £162,764.

This represents an annual increase of 2.7 per cent.

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