Homeowners gamble on a crash by selling

Nervous homeowners are gambling on a house price crash by selling their property and renting, a leading industry body said today.

Current owners have decided to sell in the hope of making a profit while homeseekers have delayed their purchase in case prices fall, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) says.

Jeremy Leaf, its residential letting spokesman, said: "Would-be buyers are renting temporarily, waiting to see if sales prices fall. Many homeowners are also selling up and renting, hoping to make a profit from a declining market."

Investors who had rushed into the buy-to-let market were also starting to bail out, it said. "Worries over house prices have prompted some investors to cash in their rental investments and realise their capital appreciation," Rics said in its quarterly rental market survey.

Surveyors said the influx of new tenants and the slowdown in the buy-to-let market should push up rents, which recorded their fourth consecutive quarterly fall in the three months to January.

Last year saw house prices surge by an average of 25 per cent, the fastest annual rise since 1989 – the peak of the last boom.

But there is mounting anecdotal evidence that the housing market is starting to slow in the face of fears of an impending war and redundancies and bonus cuts in the City of London.