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Homeowners who bought their property at the peak of the property market in 2007, have been warned they will have to wait until 2014 if they want to recover what they paid for their home according to the National Housing Federation. Their findings are based on forecasts Independent economists Oxford Economics forecast house prices would increase 22% over the next five years ? fuelled by a chronic under supply of new housing. According to the research, house prices will rise 7.5% this year, but will then fall again in 2011 by 3%, before recording a modest increase of 0.9% in 2012. This is probably difficult news to hear for people who did buy at the peak in 2007. But do remember, that it also means that your next house is also cheaper – if you are moving up the property ladder. Whilst it may be difficult emotionally to sell at a loss; if you have the cash available, you may be able to save yourself money by moving up the ladder sooner, rather than later.

For the first time since July last year, more surveyors report that they have seen prices fall in the last three months, than those who have seen prices rise – although the majority say that they haven’t seen any movements in prices.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) say that the fall is due to more people putting their property on the market, while there are fewer inquiries due to people finding it difficult to obtain mortgages, and some people being put off by a fear of unemployment.

RICS spokesman Ian Perry said “Significantly, the forward-looking price expectations numbers suggest that this softer trend will continue through the second half of the year.

The Department for Communities and Local Government’s house price index also reflects the fall in property prices. It shows the annual rate of increase fall to 9.9% in June, from 10.6% in May.

What do people feel about this? Are you glad that the property you have your eyes on, isn?t getting more expensive? Or are you more concerned about the value of your own property? Leave a comment to share your views.

The new coalition government have promptly scrapped the Home Information Packs (Hips) which have been required to be produced by home sellers since 2007. The packs will no longer be suspended for anyone selling a property from 21 May, but the government will need to pass legislation to get rid of them completely. The only item remaining is the energy performance certificate, which ranks the energy efficiency of a house.

Whilst the news is good news for many home sellers, it will not be welcomed by those in the HIPs industry, many of whom are self employed. People like estate agents though, working in the property sales industry have generally welcomed the move. Estate agents claim the packs stunted the recovery of the housing market, because they made it more difficult for people to put their home on the market.

In his budget announcement today, the chancellor Alistair Darling has declared that from tomorrow, 25^th March 2010, there will be no stamp duty to pay for first-time buyers who are purchasing a property worth less than £250,000. This is planned to continue for two years.

In order to be classed as a first time buyer, you must not have previously owned a property anywhere in the world. If it is a joint purchase, then this must be true for all the buyers. The completion date must be after midnight on 25^th March 2010 (and before 25^th March 2012).

Whilst this may be good news for those at the bottom end of the market, those at the top end of the market are being hit with the increase that will pay for the relief for first time buyers. The rate for properties worth more than £1m will increase from 4% to 5%, although this would not come in until April 2011. This will obviously have a much bigger impact in London and the South-East, than it will elsewhere.

The Bank of England has just announced that its interest rate will stay at 0.5% – bringing us to a full 12months of the lowest interest rate of all time.

Since the UK economy is still in a fragile state, the move was widely expected. Any increase in the rate could have been a hammer blow to the UK’s recovery.

Although the Bank of England rate is still at 0.5%, mortgage rates are still significantly higher than this – the average standard variable rate is at 4.7%. and the average two-year fixed-rate mortgage is now at 3.9%.

Recent data from Halifax suggests that house prices dropped by 1.5% in February – likely to be due to the drop in demand following the recent return of the lowest stamp duty band to £125,000 from the £175,000 figure it had temporarily been increased to.

Hannah-Mercedes Skenfield, mortgage expert at moneysupermarket.com said: “Undoubtedly the biggest winners from the fall in interest rates have been those consumers who have been sat on standard variable rates (SVRs). Traditionally lenders’ SVRs have usually been higher than the deal that was ending so consumers would have to remortgage as a result. Now we have a situation where many consumers are sitting on extremely low rates and have no incentive to move. We have started to see SVRs starting to increase again, and rates for remortgaging starting to fall so for some consumers, now is the time to consider looking for an alternative deal.

“The losers have been those consumers who have little equity in their property or those who have been looking to get a foot on the housing ladder, particularly first time buyers. There have been some positive signs in the mortgage market over the last 12 months; we saw the number of available mortgage products fall below the 2000 mark in 2009 but we have seen a steady increase since with numbers in excess of 2,700 which shows that the recovery in the market is in place, although it is a way short the height of 2007 when there was over 30,000 products. In addition, those who are even able to access a deal with an LTV of 90 per cent will have found themselves paying a hefty premium for the privilege, often as much as 6.05 per cent.”