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LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters): UK house prices fell at their slowest pace in over a year in the three months to September and are expected to rise for the first time in 1-1/2 years in the next three months, a report showed today.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said its seasonally adjusted house prices balance for the three months to September improved to -21 -- its highest in 14 months-from an upwardly revised - 25 in the three months to August.
RICS said the BoE's August interest rate cut to 4.5 per cent had boosted confidence in the property market, but cautioned the pace of recovery was only gradual.
Surveyors said they expected house prices to rise marginally over the next three months, the first time the outlook has turned positive in 1-1/2 years.
And enquiries from would-be buyers rose for the fourth month in a row while the number of completed sales rose to an average of 22.7 per surveyor, the highest level since last December.
"While sellers asking for unrealistic prices are still struggling to find potential buyers, they are beginning to feel more confident as fears of a sharp fall in house prices have largely dissipated," said Ian Perry, a spokesman for RICS.
But the ratio of completed sales to unsold property, which some economists consider a better gauge of the housing market's strength than prices, fell to 29.9 from 30.3 per cent in August.
And the number of unsold property on surveyors' books rose to 76.0 in September, partly reversing the decline in August, although RICS said that as fewer properties were being put up for sale, this number was likely to fall in the coming months.
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