Date Published 05 January 2017
Chief property economists say the housing market recovered "remarkably quickly" after cooling immediately after the UK's vote to leave the EU.
Another major factor in the market over the last 12 months, according to the experts, is a lack of homes going on to the market. This supply squeeze has meant that, despite all the other pressures on affordability, prices continued to increase slightly.
The constraint on supply proved to be more problematic than expected, according to Mr Rubinsohn of RICS, whose prediction of a 6% rise in house prices for 2016 looks to be the most accurate.
This trend will continue, he says, many will continue to rely on the Bank of Mum and Dad for help with raising a mortgage deposit, while others will look to the government's Help to Buy projects to find somewhere affordable.
The experts have a relatively wide spread of predictions for 2017 - from slight price falls overall to rises matching or outstripping the general level of inflation.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at mortgage lender the Halifax, is offering a hedge-your-bets prediction of between a 1% and 4% rise.
