17 Quotes by Fionnuala Earley

Affordability and overall debt levels will still have to adjust to more comfortable levels before we can expect any widespread increase in demand and thus prices,

November's data suggests that the market has settled back down to the pattern of small rises in some months and small falls in others, with prices overall growing only very slowly.

As we expected, the strong rebound in prices in October was temporary, driven by buyers postponing purchases until after the August base rate cut and the overall picture remains one of stability rather than acceleration,

It's come through a little bit more than we were expecting even two months ago. I don't think it can be sustainable at that level going forward. People are stretching themselves.

The continued pickup in mortgage approvals suggests that the market will strengthen further over the next few months.

The housing market got off to a strong start in 2006. This is a significant increase in price and confirms the strengthening trend we have seen since October.

The FTSE-100 grew by 16 percent in 2005, compared to housing market growth of 3 percent. But the FTSE still remains 10 percent below its 1999 level, whereas house prices are more than twice as high as than at the end of 1999.

The current background suggests that the market will continue to cool in a contained fashion, but it will be some time before we can expect prices and activity to return to the growth rates seen in the last two years.