House prices to rise

The housing market is safe from the spectre of a dramatic crash - for this year at least.

A new report predicts that by the end of 2003 house prices will remain at almost the same level as they were at the start of the year.

Earlier this year analysts at house price monitor Hometrack had forecast a five per cent fall in London in 2003.

But the resilience of the market has now forced them to revise this prediction.

Hometrack economist John Wriglesworth said: "The market is now showing signs of a return to health, with agents across the capital seeing more people looking to purchase and more firsttime buyers. The usually quiet summer period hasn't materialised.

"We are now expecting that by the end of the year, the small falls in house prices registered to date will be reversed and that prices will remain unchanged year-onyear in December."

The Hometrack research is based on information from over 900 London estate agents. It shows that the average house price in London is now £230,100. That is only 1.04 per cent lower than the average price last August, and prices are expected to pick up again in the autumn.

The overall figure does conceal slightly sharper moves in different areas.

Prices in the most expensive boroughs, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster and Camden, fell by more than three per cent over the past year.

At the other end of the range, prices in some of London's cheaper boroughs continued to rise, with prices in Barking and Dagenham and Hillingdon up three per cent on last August.