We journalists are always taught that, though many of us are based in London, the capital is not the whole of the UK. This is certainly true in the housing market. Remember all those stories saying the collapse of the City and death of bonuses would kill the capital’s housing market? Perhaps it was because neither really happened, but London is showing the rest of the country a clean pair of heels, certainly on prices.

The latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) shows that, in net terms, 79% of surveyors in the capital have seen prices rise over the past three months. Next comes the southeast (52%), then the southwest (29%). In most of the rest of the country, the survey suggests prices have stabilised, while in Yorkshire & Humberside and Wales they are still falling.......

The property market in London’s Docklands, an area that typifies “boom and bust” better than anywhere else in the country, is finally waking up several months after the rest of the capital. Buyers, who took fright after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last autumn, have been returning to snap up flats in prestigious new developments at a fraction of their original price.

Bargain hunters include first-time buyers, those seeking a pied à terre in London and foreign students studying at the Greenwich and Queen Mary universities. Most are buying property for themselves, helping to allay fears that the recession would turn Docklands into a graveyard of empty high-rise buildings.

The property market in London’s Docklands, an area that typifies “boom and bust” better than anywhere else in the country, is finally waking up several months after the rest of the capital. Buyers, who took fright after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last autumn, have been returning to snap up flats in prestigious new developments at a fraction of their original price.

Bargain hunters include first-time buyers, those seeking a pied à terre in London and foreign students studying at the Greenwich and Queen Mary universities. Most are buying property for themselves, helping to allay fears that the recession would turn Docklands into a graveyard of empty high-rise buildings.

The property market in London’s Docklands, an area that typifies “boom and bust” better than anywhere else in the country, is finally waking up several months after the rest of the capital. Buyers, who took fright after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last autumn, have been returning to snap up flats in prestigious new developments at a fraction of their original price.

Bargain hunters include first-time buyers, those seeking a pied à terre in London and foreign students studying at the Greenwich and Queen Mary universities. Most are buying property for themselves, helping to allay fears that the recession would turn Docklands into a graveyard of empty high-rise buildings......

The average house price rose 0.7 percent in September from the month before, boosted by rising values at the top end of the market and giving further evidence the market is recovering, a poll showed on Thursday.

The poll of polls by property consultancy Chesterton Humberts and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) found average prices have now increased for four consecutive months, though they remain 5.9 percent down on September last year.....

Homes sold at auction are achieving record sums above the guide amounts set by valuers as lower property prices have brought about a bidding war among bargain-hunters.

Countrywide, Britain’s biggest estate agent, sold a two-bedroom cottage near Truro in Cornwall for 109 per cent above its guide price of £60,000 in September, almost beating its previous record set in March of 110 per cent above the guide price of a two-bedroom bungalow, also in Cornwall.......

The proportion reporting rises in house prices rather than falls rose to its highest level in September since the onset of the credit crunch.

But the picture is different in certain parts of the country, a poll for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) found.

Prices have been most buoyant in the south of England, the survey showed.......

However, that figure was 29% higher than in August last year.

House prices have been rising briskly in the past few months, according to ...   more »