Commentary by Ruban Selvanayagam

• According to the latest UK House Price Index, average house prices saw an annual price rise of 1.3% (to January 2019);
• The latest Hometrack UK Cities House Price Index reported that Nottingham saw the greatest year-on-year house price growth at 3.8%.  This was followed by Leicester (3.8%), Edinburgh (3.4%), Manchester (3.3%), Liverpool (3.0%) and Leeds (2.8%);
• The most recent Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) report stated that demand, sales and instructions all rise for a third successive month (although this is likely to change in the coming months given the COVID-19 situation); house price inflation appears to be gathering pace and ear term sales expectations remain positive but have been tempered slightly compared to last month.