Estate agents still optimistic about property market

The downturn in house sales will not see the mortgage market collapse, estate agents in Hampshire have said.

Although prices fell by 0.4 per cent in the county in October according to the survey by property website Hometrack, there is no panic among property professionals, who believe the downturn will only last into the first part of 2008, The News, Portsmouth reports.

Ed Fisher, a senior negotiator at Fry and Kent estate agents in Southsea, told the paper: "We are expecting the drops until February or March time when interest rates may have to be reduced and buyers come back in.

"But we are not predicting any sort of price crash."

Hampshire''s fall was part of a wider picture revealed in the survey, with other areas in the south suffering the highest falls.

Top of the list was central London with a 0.5 per cent drop.

In its predictions for the housing market in 2008, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said interest rates would be cut before the end of 2007 and fall to five per cent next year, a move which may re-ignite the mortgage market.

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