The UK base rate has again been kept at 0.5% by the Bank of England (BoE) for the 13th consecutive month.

Also the Quantitative Easing (QE) programme has been left unchanged at £200bn, however the BoE may extend QE in the future if the economic recovery loses steam in early 2010, after it started to improve in the final quarter of 2009.

James Thomas, head of residential development and investment at Jones Lang LaSalle, said: “The residential market saw positive news this month, with Nationwide reporting house prices rising by +0.7% across the UK in March.

“All eyes are now towards the Election and the outlook for fiscal planning. The backdrop of the underlying economic conditions, in conjunction with a predicted rise in unemployment, is likely to dampen price growth and the concern of rising interest rates later in the year will continue to weigh on the market which has performed well recently largely due to a limited supply of property for sale.”