At the start of the year the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors predicted that house prices would fall by 10% by the end of 2009. 

However with the current trends in the market, the organisation has changed its position, now forecasting the cost of housing to increase, finishing the year better than it started.

RICS senior economist Brigid O'Leary said: "There has been a clear change in the housing market over the past few months and, as a result, it is unlikely that we will now see the kind of house price falls widely predicted at the start of the year. Instead, the return of buyer demand and the limited availability of housing on the market could be enough to support prices so it wouldn't be surprising to actually see prices increase further from here in the short term".

The lack of new housing has been cause for alarm for many, but recent figures from the National House-Building Council (NHBC) show that private sector housing starts are at the highest in almost a year.  Their figures also show that with 21,637 building applications, in the public and private sectors combined,

Their figures also show an increase in building applications of 12% on the previous quarter, reaching 21,637 in the private and public sectors combined.

There is some disagreement from some areas of the economic sector, with the recent report from Oxford Economics who claim that prices will continue to fall until 2012. 

But RICS, the men on the ground, suggest that while it will take time for the economy to deliver a more stable and orderly market, the immediate outlook seems positive.

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