Here we are again,talking about house prices increasing! Do we really want them to? Of course we dont.After all the huge hike in property values over the last 6 or 7 years has been a major contributor to the economic mess we are in now.Yet that wonderful group of professionals calling themselves estate agents are at it again trying to uplift prices to ridculous levels.We need prices to come down so that the first time buyers can afford to buy and kick start the market again. Why is it that this bunch of professionals and I include valuers and surveyors are not being held acountable for the damage caused to the housing market.Year on year they have increased prices well above the rate of inflation and we have all lapped it up showing that greed has taken over from common sense. So lets carry on pointing the finger at the banks for messing up but dont forget the estate agencies and their constant ambition to make even more commision from vendors.Surely they too must be accountable !

Thanks brown for making a complete ass out of the country !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because of your lies about the state of the economy many millions of people in this country are in negative equity. When a government is the biggest lier what sort of chance we have. They call themselves Labour. Yes ,perhaps they have increased the minimum wage from 4.25 to 5.80 but they have also allowed the real inflation to spiral out of control. It is almost impossible for ordinary people of this country to make a living with 5.80 an hour. You are better off being on benefit. Many of us have been relying on banks to fill the gap between unfair pay and unfair prices. This government or the one which will take over in the next election (the Conservative ) are all the same. If there is no criminal liability on the MPs for stealing form us then whoever takes over will do the more harm to us agian. We need political accountability which at the monment is not part of the English law for obvious reasons.

I've just sold my house after 2 years 3 months at a losss of 85k and thought I would be buying into lower market values. Don't you believe it! Selling and buying are completely different entities! The market still requires you sell low and buy higher whatever your personal circumstances.

They will slump soon, according to data they should have dropped lower when they started dropping and QE is just holding the prices up at the moment as there has been too much loss in GDP and employment.

the big property crash is on the way the harder they try to talk the market up the more scared the banks are..................hold on tight its going to be a roller coaster ride!

I Totally agree with both comments

you bet the worse is yet to come because their is no jobs and the jobs av ailable will not get you on the housing ladder because it is all low paid or contract as there is no permanent work out there so the house prices will have to drop and there has to be more real jobs available for sustained growth.

If it hadn't been for the low interest rate and the quantitative easing the market would have been a lot worse than it is at present. However the bad news is that the government has to reduce spending in the coming year. The borrowing cost will be much higher and the unemployment will hit a new record. This will have asignificant effect on the future of the housing market. The worst is yet to come.