Average stock levels on estate agency books have remained “within a whisker” of the record lows set in February, surveyors claim.
The latest RICS Residential Market Survey for April shows there were an average of 42.2 properties per branch during April, close to the record low of just under 42 and raising questions of whether the market has gained any spring bounce.
New buyer enquiries were more or less unchanged during April, RICS said, arresting a sequence of four straight months in which they had declined fairly sharply. However, it has now been 13 consecutive months since the new buyer enquiries reading was last positive.
The balance of surveyors reporting a decline in sales was also almost flat following 12 months of consecutive declines up to March.
In some slightly more positive news, fewer RICS members reported a decline in instructions than in previous months, with 7% more reporting a fall in April compared with close to 20% saying activity had declined in March. This was the least negative reading since last September.
Looking ahead, just 8% more surveyors said they expect sales activity to increase rather than decrease over the next 12 months.
Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist, said: “The housing market typically tends to see a pick-up in activity at around this time of the year and the feedback from respondents to the latest survey does seem to be capturing this tone.
“However, once this seasonal pattern has been allowed for the underlying trend in transactions still remains broadly flat.”
Whilst the doom and gloom forecasts for which the RICS has an established reputation are a necessary balance to the hyped up optimism which flows out of many estate agent commentators, I really do not think this report has much accuracy.
Here in the south-west the market is performing ok and it would appear to be the same in many places. Yes, we could do with some more instructions and subsequent increases in sales, but properties that are put onto the market at or close to their market values are selling quite quickly at or close to those prices. While prices are not going up or down particularly, there is a welcome – and surprising – stability. The market in our city state has distorted the RICS report.
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The housing supply/demand problems continue in many towns across England and Wales if not in Richard Copus’s one.
All local housing markets in England and Wales have been broken over the decades, owing to the flawed and out-dated economic model where agents primarily advise only vendors.
Buyers are under-represented and are now taking flight in increasing numbers. The statistics clearly show this and speak of themselves. It’s largely owing to the prohibitively high prices, which are materialising as a result of vendor-led agency involvement coupled with excessive financial-lending on house purchasing which has become increasingly profit-centric.
The only way to correct and resolve this crisis is to change, for the better, the way houses are marketed by equalising the advice being given to buyers and to sellers. This would best be achieved by reforming the estate agency model so that buyers become the primary clients in the house-buying and renting marketplace.
This in turn would actually equalise the advice given to buyers and sellers because ultimately, it is the buyer that pays. The seller would also gain from this equalisation, through increased sales and completions.
Prices would follow market values more accurately and reliably, from year to year as a direct result. More housing price stability would also be the outcome.
The idea that by somehow building ever larger firms of vendor-orientated estate agents, the market could then improve itself is a flawed concept.
For all the details of how a more efficient and effective service to house owners and renters could be provided, please refer to:
http://www.improvethehousingmarket.co.uk
This is not a selling website but instead is a blog for providing information and comment in this specialist area.
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Speaking of “surveyors’ gloom”…
LOOK WHAT THE CHUFFIN’ CAT DRAGGED IN!
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