UK house-price gauge rises as property demand improves

LONDON, Mar 8 (Bloomberg): A UK house-price gauge rose for a fourth month in February as demand increased and transaction levels improved, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said. The number of real-estate agents and surveyors saying prices fell exceeded those seeing gains by 26 per centage points, down from 31 per centage points in January, the London-based group said in an e-mailed report today. That matched the median forecast of 16 economists in a Bloomberg survey. Recent data have shown a mixed picture of the housing market, with banks curtailing lending and the prospect of the largest government budget squeeze since World War II casting a shadow over the economic outlook. Bank of England policy makers will meet this week after three of the nine-member panel voted to increase the benchmark interest rate last month to tackle inflation, a move that could put further pressure on the market. "Despite the more positive picture for some parts of the U.K., the general mood is still a little flat," RICS spokesman Jeremy Leaf said in a statement. "Rather ominously, we have probably yet to feel the full impact of the public-spending cuts." The majority of respondents reporting that prices fell in February said the declines were limited to a maximum of 2 per cent, RICS said. More than half of all surveyors said prices were unchanged. A measure of sales per surveyor in the three months through February rose to 14.8 from 14.6 in the three months through January. An index of new buyer enquiries, an indicator of demand, rose to minus 1 in February from minus 7, and a measure showing the number of new property listings increased to 5 from minus 3. Buyer interest continues to be hurt by lenders' requirement for large deposits and concerns over the prospect of rising interest rates, RICS said.