London leads UK housing slowdown

[LONDON] Bank of England policymaker David Miles said that London's property market is showing signs of cooling as an index of values in the capital, published yesterday, slipped to a three-year low.

"The latest indicators are that things are cooling a little bit in London, prices were rising very rapidly," he said on BBC Radio 4. "Some of the forward-looking indicators look a bit cooler" and the monetary policy committee's view is that across the country "the overall rate of increases in house prices probably will slow down a bit".

An index of values in London dropped to 10 from 30 in June, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said yesterday. That's the lowest since March 2011. The report also showed that surveyors have cut their forecast for price growth as stricter lending rules and the prospect of increased borrowing costs weigh on the market.