Published on : Mon, 28 Nov 2005 22:12GMT
by : Richard Byers

LONDON - House prices continued to show resilience in the month of November even though they have remained largely unchanged since the last month, property website Hometrack said in its latest monthly report.

This is the first time in sixteen months that house prices have held steady and have not fallen as had been the trend for the whole of this year until now, "A move to more realistic pricing of property over the last year, combined with the cut in interest rates in August 2005 has resulted in some pent-up demand feeding back into the market over recent months," said Richard Donnell of Hometrack.

"This has pushed up levels of sales activity but had limited impact on average prices which are likely to remain unchanged over the next few months." The average price of a home in the UK for the month of November was £160,700 and was unchanged since the last month.

It is generally accepted that the August rate cut by the Bank of England has helped revive the housing market which was in doldrums for much of the year. Hometrack found that there was a rise in home prices in the south of England and in the inner areas of London.

Property markets in both these areas have demonstrated considerable activity and it is estimated that prices here will continue to rise. Also with the Olympics coming up in 2012, the market looks set to cash in. Hometrack also found that the average time taken to seal a deal and sell the property was at an all-time high of 8 weeks. Prices in northern and southwest England and East Anglia and Wales remained unchanged, the report said.

Hometrack's findings are on the same lines as that of a survey by property website Rightmove, which had found that house prices in October fell by 0.1 percent.