House prices could bounce back 'as quickly as they fell'

Date:Monday 29th December 2008
Author: Max Freedman

Despite recent rapid falls in house prices being unprecedented, the housing market may recover just as quickly as it slumped, it has been suggested.

Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, stated that it looks likely that the housing market will begin to recover in 2009 and implied that once prices hit rock bottom, it will not be long before they return to the levels seen at the start of 2008.

"Parts of the market are perhaps beginning to bottom out and it seems possible to me that once the recovery begins, we could see a bounce as pronounced as the fall," he remarked.

However, three things are needed before the recovery can begin, Mr Bolton King said.

He explained that mortgage lenders need to make more money available, interest rate cuts need to be passed on to consumers and investors need to have more confidence in the marketplace.

Earlier this month, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors predicted that house prices will remain subdued throughout 2009.