According to the latest RICS survey, property surveyors are becoming less pessimistic on future price trends, as they are seeing a return of buyer confidence and an upturn in interest from first time buyers looking to beat the stamp duty exemption deadline

Expectations for future house prices saw a considerable turnaround in February say RICS. This is the first time since May 2010 that their surveyor respondents have not been predicting further price declines.

Transaction levels continued to edge up with the average amount of property sales per surveyor (by branch) moving up to 16, an increase of almost 4% on last month’s figure of 15.7. Although still historically low, this is the most positive reading on transactions since September 2010 and RICS suggests that the improvement in activity seen in recent months is continuing.

In spite of this more positive trend in sales activity, house prices across the UK continued to dip during February, albeit at the slowest rate for over a year and a half. 13% more chartered surveyors reported price falls rather than rises in the last month. Regionally, London was again the only part of the country to see prices increase, while surveyors in the West Midlands and Northern Ireland saw the least positive readings.

Looking ahead, with a less pessimistic outlook surrounding future prices, surveyors expect transaction levels to continue to rise and 20% more surveyors predict sales to increase over the coming three months.

Alan Collett, RICS housing spokesperson, said: “With the recent upturn in activity brought on by the end of the stamp duty holiday, it seems that a renewed sense of optimism may be slowly returning to the property market. Chartered surveyors’ price predictions were more optimistic in almost every area of the country in February.

“However, with affordable mortgage finance still out of reach for many potential first time buyers, it remains to be seen whether the more optimistic outlook for future sales can be sustained beyond the expiry of the stamp duty holiday.”