RICS survey: housing slump at worst since early 1990s

The slump in house prices is now at its worst since the recession of the early 1990s, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The latest RICS survey shows that 49.1% of surveyors polled reported a fall in prices rather than a rise.

In the last survey in November, 40.6% of surveyors polled reported a fall, and this sentiment over the state of the housing market is the worst since November 1992.

Enquiries from new buyers and numbers of newly agreed sales continue to fall according to RICS, but the slump in both areas has eased since the last survey.

The number of new instructions to sell property has risen for the first time since May 2007, but the introduction of Housing Information Price Surveys (HIPS) has not helped.

According to the RICS, last year’s interest rate rises and a tightening in the criteria of mortgage lenders is still affecting sentiment.