UK house prices rise in November, says RICS

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its house price balance nudged down to +49 in November, better than the +48 expected by analysts but lower than the upwardly revised +50 the previous month.

The survey showed house prices in East Anglia and the East Midlands are rising faster than those in London, where the growth rate slowed for the fourth month in a row.

RICS attributed the slowdown in the capital to the recent rise in stamp duty, which currently stands at 10% for homes over £1m and 12% for homes over £1.5m.

“November’s RICS survey indicates that the recovery in house prices still has plenty of momentum. The price balance remained at a level consistent with year-over-year growth picking up to about 12% soon,” said Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.