DAVY VIEW

This morning’s Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) survey points to a definite softening of conditions in the UK housing market in May, but not a rapid deterioration. This chimes with other mixed signals, prices rising by 1% in May according to the Halifax index but Zoopla warning the proportion of listed properties forced to cut their asking price is rising. In summary, it is still probably too early to gauge the impact of rapidly rising mortgage interest rates on the UK housing market – the average two-year fixed rate is reported to now be above 3.2%.