RICS

The Government's decision to abolish Home Information Packs (HIPs) has helped push more supply onto the market, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), as house prices edged up in May.

Homeowners are rushing to put their properties up for sale in a bid to beat the General Election, surveyors said.

The slow but steady rise in house prices in recent months may be stunted as more properties come on to the market, surveyors say.

House prices climbed in January but both buyer and seller interest was hit as a result of the snowy weather, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

A survey of 5,400 businesses by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) concluded that while improvements were evident in some parts of the economy, momentum was not sufficient to drive a recovery in the final three months of the year.

House prices continued to rise in November - despite an increase in the number of properties available.

The number of UK mortgage approvals hit more than 42,200 in October, the highest since January last year, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) says.

Sellers are returning to the housing market but buyer interest is slowing, according to the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) UK housing market survey.

Signs of revived interest in the housing market comes in the July survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

House prices will end 2009 higher than they started the year due to price rises in certain areas over the past few months, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).