The prospect of higher interest rates weighted on Britain’s housing market last month, with downward pressure on house prices increasing for ​the first time in four months, the Royal Institution of ‌Chartered Surveyors said this week.

RICS said its house price balance fell to -32 last month from a five-month high of -28 in August, a bigger decline than expected in a ​Reuters poll of economists, while the number of new properties ​coming onto the market rose for the first time since ⁠the middle of last year.

“A renewed rise in interest rate expectations has ​created a fresh headwind for the housing market, with buyers becoming a ​little more cautious and sales activity losing some momentum,” RICS Head of Market Research Tarrant Parsons said.

  • RICS members expect property prices to fall further over the next three ​months but to be stable over a 12-month horizon
  • London has the most ​negative price balance while Scotland and Northern Ireland reported rising prices
  • Financial markets expect the ‌BoE ⁠to raise rates in November, and three more times in 2027, though forecasts earlier this year for a string of rate rises proved premature
  • RICS’ measure of new buyer enquiries weakened for the first time since March, ​though it remains well ​above the ⁠low hit just after the outbreak of the US-Iran war
  • Rising demand from tenants and fewer properties from landlords has ​pushed the net balance for rents above its average ​in ⁠the first half of the year, though it is lower than in August
  • Mortgage lender Lloyds reported unchanged house prices in September while Nationwide reported a small unexpected ⁠drop
  • Britain’s Office ​for National Statistics reported a 3.8 per cent annual ​rise in rents for private-sector housing in August and a 1.4 per cent rise in house prices ​in the 12 months to July