For a painful 18 months amid falling property values and share prices, the UK economy has been desperately looking for a turn in its fortunes. Now it seems every new week brings with it fresh evidence that the British economy is firmly on the road to recovery. 

Below I’ve highlighted some of the key data that emerged over the last week:

• The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) this week announced that they are reversing an earlier prediction for a drop of as much as 15 percent this year and now believe that UK house prices will rise in 2009. The average price of a home will be “slightly higher” in the fourth quarter of 2009 than it was in the same period last year, RICS said in a statement.
  

• The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) reports that property prices have hit its 'floor'. It says prices will rise 2% next year and 3.5% in 2011. The CEBR report follows a forecast from the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, that prices will rise 20% by 2014.
  
  
• More good news from two of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders. Halifax's July report showed that home values climbed 1.1 percent to an average of £159,623 last month, while Nationwide Building Society reported the third monthly rise in its house price index. These increases are almost twice as much as economists forecast in July. Nationwide went on to say that there is now a "reasonable chance that prices could end the year slightly higher than where they started". A picture very different to that painted at the start on the year. Nationwide’s index of consumer sentiment rose to 60, the highest since May 2008. Homeowners expect the value of their properties to rise 0.5 percent in the next six months, the most since December 2007, Nationwide said.
  

• Mortgage approvals rose to 47,584 in June, the highest in more than a year. That’s a third lower than at the start of 2008, central bank data show.
  

• The Bank of England last week increased its bond-purchase plan by 50 billion pounds, saying the recession has proved deeper than previously thought. It held the benchmark interest rate at a record low of 0.5 percent. Governor Mervyn King will present the bank’s new growth and inflation forecasts tomorrow in London.
  

• The UK service sector expanded the most in 18 months in July and manufacturing unexpectedly rose in June. A separate report by the British Retail Consortium showed retail sales rose in July.
  

Where from here...

Despite the UK economy officially still being in recession, all the signs now point to a rosier future. I’m going to put my head on the chopping block here and predict that the next quarterly report will show positive growth – hopefully the first of many. But as always of course – these facts mean little to the investor who refuses to act - “Fortes fortuna adiuvat”