NAEA's predictions for 2010
The General Election, a rise in VAT and the end of the stamp duty holiday are going to have a huge bearing on the property market in the first few months of 2010 according National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA).
In its annual forecast for the year ahead, the NAEA is predicting that house prices could remain flat in the first half of the year but will pick up again and remaining stable in the second half of the year once the General Election has been decided.
Once the new government is in power a decision will also taken on Home Information Packs (HIPS). The Tories have been very forthright in their pledge to scrap HIPs within a matter of weeks if they are swept to power.
Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the NAEA, said that the election would cause a lull in activity as people adopt a "wait and see" approach. •
He added that in the last six months of 2009 the market had witnessed a slight increase in housing prices, driven largely by the fact that demand was outstripping supply.
As a longer term trend showed, he added, there has been a pick up in demand as many people take advantage of lower prices and interest rates and this clearly indicates that the British public still believes that investing in bricks and mortar is the right thing to do.