It bases its confidence on a growing population oustripping current low rates of development. With the UK population growth forecast to grow at 0.3% (213,000 people) a year, the number of households will grow from 21 million last year to 22.5 million in 2011. The Housing Builders' Federation says an extra 40,000 new homes will need to be built each year to meet this growth.

Others point to a slowdown in the market for residential. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' latest residential property survey points out the first signs. It reports that house prices continue their upward trend, but the pace of increase has stabilised for the first time for five months, with the rate of increase remaining the same as in the previous month.

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