PROPERTY experts are predicting a fall in house prices across the county as supply starts to outstrip demand.

A Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) survey showed a growing number of estate agents in the area have more properties on their books, but fewer buyers.

And yesterday they predicted the impact could lead prices to drop.

The RICS survey for July showed 15 per cent more Oxfordshire surveyors reported a fall rather than rise in house prices, a major shift from June when 15 per cent more surveyors were optimistic prices would rise.

RICS said difficulty in securing mortgages and more uncertainty about the prospects for the economy may have contributed to caution from potential homebuyers.

South-East director Amanda Gardiner said: “This is a reflection of both the increase in supply following the scrapping of Home Information Packs (HIPs) and the more cautious stance from buyers.”

Figures for June from the Government’s Land Registry showed the average price of a property in the county was already falling.

The average house price was £237,607, down £285 – or 0.1 per cent – on the May figure and the first drop since April 2009.

Edward Kearney, 30, of Kelburne Road, in Cowley, has been trying to sell his flat for the last five months.

He said: “It is clear there is an awful lot of competition in the market at the moment. It has meant we have had to take stock and look at the price of our property.”

The abolition of HIPS in May, as well as changes to Capital Gains Tax, may have encouraged more sellers, with the average number of properties on surveyors’ books rising to an average of 52, up from 43 in June.

Some agents said while there had been an increased supply of properties, it was more of a return to normal market conditions after a supply shortage during the recession.

And the true test of the market would come in September, traditionally a busy time for buying and selling. Mark Charter, head of residential sales at the North Oxford office of Carter Jonas, said: “There are more houses on the market, but in context this is what we would expect for this time of year.

“The price rises we have seen are not sustainable in the long-term and have probably peaked, but we have not seen signs they are falling. None of us know what September is going to bring, but in the long-term there is a shortage of houses and in the South demand will keep going up.”

Giles Lawton, of Summertown-based Savills, said: “We exchanged contracts on 19 properties in July which is what we would expect. There is an overall shortage of housing, interest rates are still low and people want to live in Oxfordshire.”

Andy Wright, assistant manager of Andrews estate agents in Cowley, said: “We have not had a massive increase in the amount of stock we have and we are ahead of target on sales. Prices are fairly static.”

Damian Fairclough, manager of the Witney branch of Allen & Harris, said: “Witney is very competitively priced compared to other parts of Oxfordshire and the market has been stable for the last 18 months.”