RICS

Demand for UK housing hit its highest level in two years in March as more properties were put up for sale ahead of the Stamp Duty holiday-end, data suggests.

Only fourteen homes were sold per UK estate agent in the three months to August - the lowest total for more than two years, said the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Average UK house prices are unlikely to recover to their previous peak levels until around 2020, according to analysis by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC).

The hoped-for spring bounce in the housing market failed to occur during May, as fears over the economy and lack of mortgage finance continued to depress activity levels, according to RICS.

Confidence in Portugal's property market has taken a further knock as demand falls in Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve.

The Japanese government has raised the severity of the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant to 7, a rating only previously applied following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

UK house prices will flat line next year ending 2% lower but the number of repossessions will also fall, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Home sellers continued to outnumber buyers in the last three months causing property prices to slip back, according to surveyors.

Future sales expectations rose in August, despite the balance of newly agreed sales falling to its lowest level in two years, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

House prices fell for the first time in a year last month, as the supply of properties reached a three year high while demand dwindled, according to RICS.