UK housing sees rise in sellers: report SELLERS are returning to the UK housing market as they are tempted back by rising prices and growing demand, new figures reveal. Surveyors with increasing new instructions rose to a balance of 26 per cent in August, from 16 per cent in July, a report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) showed. And surveyors seeing house prices rise rather than fall climbed to the highest level in almost seven years, with a balance of 40 per cent, as the market is fuelled by government stimulus schemes such as Help to Buy and Funding for Lending. A balance of 66 per cent also reported growing inquiries from potential buyers last month. Help to Buy offers government loans to allow people to buy new-build homes with a five per cent deposit, while Funding for Lending is designed to ease borrowing conditions for households as well as small businesses. While these schemes have helped fuel demand, supply has been squeezed by relatively few new properties coming onto the market, as people wait for the right moment to sell. "It's not surprising that more and more people are looking to sell their homes," said RICS global residential director Peter Bolton King. The buyers are out there and prices are on the up, so if you're looking to move it's a good time to do so. But he added surveyors are warily watching house prices inflate amid fears they will become unaffordable. House prices in the UK are 5.4 per cent higher than last summer, figures from lender Halifax showed last week. It said prices rose 0.4 per cent in August from July, the seventh consecutive monthly increase, resulting in an average figure of 170,231. New Bank of England governor Mark Carney recently addressed concerns that government stimulus measures risk stoking another property bubble. He said the bank is "acutely aware" of the potential threats and said action will be taken to clamp down on mortgage lending if needed.