Price slowdown gives hope to first time buyers

14-Jun-2007

First time buyers eager to get onto the housing ladder have been boosted by new figures which have reinforced recent suggestions that the house price boom is finally beginning to slow down.

The study from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) put price growth for May at the lowest level since April 2006, and noted that the number of surveyors reporting an increase in prices had fallen by 4.5 per cent month-on-month.

And the number of properties being put on the market rose at the fastest rate since Rics records began 30 years ago, the organisation noted.

"With interest rates expected to rise even higher and some home owners fearing the end of fixed rate deals, affordability conditions are set to worsen across the board and will herald a cooling market," said Rics spokesman Jeremy Leaf.

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) advised this week that home builders should realise that deficiencies in the UK's planning system are not the sole reason for the shortfall in supply that has resulted in increasingly difficult conditions for first time buyers.

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