Commentary by Ruban Selvanayagam

• According to the latest UK House Price Index, average house prices saw an annual price rise of 1.1% (to February 2019);
• The latest Hometrack UK Cities House Price Index reported that Nottingham saw the greatest year-on-year house price growth at 4.3%.  This was followed by Manchester (3.9%), Leicester (3.5%), Leeds (3.4%) and Liverpool (2.4%);
• It’s worth noting that, due to the 2/3 month time lag, both the HM Land Registry / ONS and Hometrack datasets have still not taken into account the impacts of COVID-19;
• The most recent Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) report observed that indicators on prices and sales remain negative but enquiries stabilise; near term sales expectations now broadly neutral while the 12-month outlook improves slightly and surveyor respondents foresee a sharp increase in desire for properties with gardens over the next two years.