'No meltdown' in European housing market

Low interest rates and reviving economies helped to avoid a housing market meltdown across Europe, a new study has suggested.

The latest Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) European Housing Review found that, in the UK, prices rose by 1% in 2009 overall but by 10% from their lowest point in April.

Simon Rubinsohn, RICS' chief economist, noted that low interest rates and government measures had helped stabilised the environment in the majority of European countries.

The report's author, Professor Michael Ball, stated that the downturn had been a lot more shallow than anticipated, but homeowners still face a number of "credit constraints and great uncertainty".

It was recently observed by the company that statistics from the Land Registry demonstrated that property prices had risen in January, but it was impossible to say whether or not this situation could be sustained, provided calmness was still shown.