House buyer enquiries and sales up and house prices stabilising
Published: 9 June 2009 By MoneyhighStreet Staff Leave a Comment
The latest UK housing market survey from RICS shows an increase in the number of house buyer enquiries and house sales and indications that house prices are stabilising.
On average over the last 3 months the number of house sales was 11.8, up from 10.6.
New house selling instructions have continued to fall which is reducing the stock of houses for sale.
With house sales starting to rise, coupled with fewer houses in the stocks, it’s helping to stabilise house prices.
Encouragingly, for the 7th consecutive month the number of Chartered Surveyors seeing an increase in new house buyer enquiries has risen.
Ian Perry, RICS spokesperson, said ‘On the face of it, the housing market does appear to be close to bottoming out with acitvity picking up in a material way and prices at last stabilising.’
He added though ‘However it is important to remember that the lack of supply has been as important in underpinning prices as the rise in demand. Moreover, with the economic backdrop still quite uncertain, unemployment is set to continue increasing sharply and finance for first time buyers is still in short supply, there are a number of significant obstacles for the market to overcome over the coming months.’
Positively, only 11% more surveyors believe house prices will fall rather than rise. This is significantly better than the 42% who thought this the case last month and is the most positive position seen since July 2007.
One question that will be interesting to see the answer to is how long house sellers will hold out before they really start putting their houses on the market again in volume?
If house sellers think house prices have all but bottomed, presumably some will hold out for the prices to start rising before they step in. The longer they wait, the less house stock there will which will presumably help house prices to move up.
Clearly what stance house sellers take is only one part of the equation.
The availability of mortgages and the impact of the wider economy will have a significant role to play in where the housing market goes from here.
At least for now though there appear to be some encouraging signs.
