May 11, 2011 | Author

Author Alec Hanson

Good Weather helps improve market

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has reported on it’s latest survey of it’s members. The overall outcome indicates a broad improvement across the market. The general view is this has been helped by the good weather in April.

However feedback still shows the market very subdued and uncertain.

Headline items:

The overall price balance* at -16% was the highest since July 2010, yet it was still negative meaning that more respondents saw falling rather than rising prices.
London (23), Scotland (6) and the North (2) report a positive balance with all other regions negative (between -3 and -43)
New enquiries have stabilised, however new instructions have risen
The balance of the number of Sales excepted is positive, yet the price balance expectations remain negative (apart from London and North West)

Although respondents are still seeing falling prices, the vast number (>80%) are only seeing these falls in 0-2% band. This backs up the general House Price Index (HPI) picture that is also reporting falling prices, but at a relatively slow pace.

The average number of complete sales improved by 6.1% over the month to 15.2. Improvements where also seen in available stock, up 1.5%

RICS housing spokesman Michael Newey states:

“The return of sellers to the market is positive, but activity still remains subdued and it is difficult to see it picking up materially over the coming months,” he said.

“Although there are signs that some lenders may be reducing their grip on the purse strings, in particular with mortgages aimed at first-time buyers, there is still a long way to go before lending levels increase enough to have any real impact.

* Balance = Proportion of surveyors reporting a rise in prices minus those reporting a fall (if 30% reported arise and 5% reported a fall, the unadjusted balance will be 25%)