Investment Property News - Bueno Investments Limited

The UK’s housing market remained resilient last year despite the impact of the credit crunch and rising interest rates, new research shows.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said prices in the UK jumped by 8% during 2007, making it the best performing market out of all the major European economies.

But Cyprus and Iceland were the only countries where house price growth in the 12 months outstripped gains made in the previous year, with the average cost of a home rising by 15% in both countries.

Professor Michael Ball, the author of the report, said: “The often repeated dilemma currently facing monetary authorities is that slowing economies - and housing markets - need lower interest rates, but higher inflation is against them. How Europe’s housing markets fare in 2008 depends on how that tug-of-war develops.

“There are prospects for some house price falls during 2008 but the scale of any housing market downturn is likely to be far less than the last downturn in the early 1990s.

“The UK housing market looks much better placed than many others in Europe because of the greater interest rate flexibility.”

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http://www.buenoinvestments.com/uk_property_investment.php (UK property)

http://www.buenoinvestments.com/investement_overseas_property.php (Overseas property)

http://www.rics.org/ (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors)