Lack of properties drives house prices up across the UK

House prices are rising in every part of the UK for the first time since last summer as a lack of property coming on to the market drives prices upwards.

Jeremy Blackburn, head of policy at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said the affordability and availability of homes in the UK "is now a national emergency", adding that addressing the shortage of new homes must be a priority for the government.

He called on the Conservatives to put forward a "coherent and co-ordinated house building" strategy using both the public and private sectors.

RICS's monthly survey reports house price momentum is increasing nationwide mainly as a result of a shift in tone in the London market.

In March, a net balance of 6 per cent of surveyors in the capital were reporting prices falling, but in April this has reversed to a net balance of 28 per cent seeing prices rise.

RICS puts the reason for this firmly on a shortage of supply: it says while buyer demand remains broadly flat, the number of new instructions of properties for sale has slipped for eight consecutive months out of the past nine.

The organisation also held out little hope that estate agents' reports of surging post-election activity would lead to new homes coming on to the market and damp prices.

Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at RICS, said he doubted any pick-up in instructions "will be substantive enough to provide anything more than temporary relief.

"Alongside an increased flow of second-hand stock, it is absolutely critical that the new government focuses on measures to boost the flow of new build," he said.

About 140,000 new homes were built in 2014, about 100,000 short of what analysts estimate is needed.

UK properties cost roughly five times an average first-time buyer's earnings, close to the previous record high in 2007 as prices have continued to rise faster than incomes.

This has particularly hit young people: calculations by campaign group Priced Out suggest that rising prices have prevented more than 1.2m people owning their own homes since 2010 while separate recent research by Halifax found more young renters were giving up on ever owning a home.

As surveyors become involved at the early stage in the house buying process, the RICS data are considered one of the best forward-looking indicators of market trends.

With Nationwide data showing that prices in April rose at the fastest pace since last June, the fear is that the UK could be on the brink of another period of sustained price rises.

The Bank of England is expecting prices to increase by about 0.5 per cent a month in the second half of this year.

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