The rate of rise in UK house prices has slowed down, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
The last survey of 2009 found that 30 per cent more surveyors observed prices to be rising rather than falling, but that difference was lower than in October or November. Members of RICS who are estate agents sold homes at an average of 1.5 per week in the month, but new buyer enquiries slipped back to their slowest rate since the beginning of the year.
A spokesman for RICS, Jeremy Leaf, said that the slowdown was normal for the season.
?The recent loss of momentum in prices and the moderation in new buyer interest can be in part attributed to the housing market pulling down its shutters for Christmas,? he told BBC News. ?It is likely that the new year will see more interest and activity in the market as those who held back start to market their property with renewed optimism.?
Mr Leaf said that it was a lack of available properties that was keeping house prices buoyant, with new enquiries still outpacing new instructions. Nevertheless, new instructions were up for the seventh month in succession.
?For the time being the increase in demand still appears to be outstripping the increase in supply, albeit at a more modest pace than previously,? RICS said.
Since spring 2009 house prices have risen, surprising the experts. However, they have said the reasons have been record low interest rates, lack of properties for sale and buyers being helped with money from parents.
