MOMENTUM in the North West housing market slowed last month as demand from buyers fell, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

It is predicting that prices will rise over the coming year due to lack of houses for sale, and it says the average house sale in the North West is taking 13 weeks to complete.

In its March 2018 survey of the housing market, RICS says interest from would-be buyers dropped for the seventh month in a row, and the number of newly agreed sales also fell.

The professional body for surveyors says this "subdued trend" was also mirrored by the lack of fresh homes coming up for sale - a trend for more than two years now.

It says average stock levels on estate agents' books are at "near an all-time low" and agents who responded to the survey are not expecting stock levels to rise in the near future.

Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist, said: "The latest RICS results provide little encouragement that the drop in housing market activity in the North West is likely to be reversed anytime soon. Apart from the implications this has for the market itself, it also has the potential to impact the wider economy, contributing to a softer trend in household spending.

"This could make Bank of England deliberations around a May hike in interest rates - which is pretty much odds-on at the moment - a little more finely balanced than would otherwise be the case."