UK house prices up 10 percent in 2006

A new survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyeors’ that reviewed the state of European housing markets in 2006 says that UK housing prices rose at a faster pace during the year than did housing prices in other major European economies. The survey found that UK house prices were up by around 10 percent last year. Meanwhile, house prices in Germany did not grow at all. Prices were up by 4 percent in Italy and by around 7 percent in France.

On the other hand, house prices in some Scandinavian and Central and Eastern European nations grew at a much faster pace than did UK house prices. House prices in Sweden did not grow much faster than UK rates, at 11 percent, while the price of houses grew at a pace of 17 percent in Norway and were up by 22 percent in Denmark. The fastest pace of house price growth took place further east. House prices grew at a rate of nearly 20 percent in Bulgarian and Estonia, while Poland witnessed house prices grow by more than 30 percent.

The author of the report, Professor Michael Ball, said that the survey shows that fears of a price slowdown in the housing markets in high-value markets such as the UK seem to be misplaced.

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