RICS - The number of new properties coming to the market contracts at the fastest pace on record!

The number of homes on the market at a record low in July as house price growth slumped on the uncertainty in the wake of the Brexit referendum.

The amount of new buyer inquiries and the number of agreed sales, continued to fall, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). July’s residential housing market survey posted the lowest reading in three years for recent house price growth: just 5% more of those surveyed saw a rise rather than a fall in prices. Predictions for house price growth in the next three months remained negative across the country. 

The surveyors polled said that the outlook for the next 12 months was slightly more positive, with 23% more people expecting prices to increase, compared to last month’s survey which put that number at zero. London and East Anglia are the only areas in the UK where prices are expected to fall in the next year. But over the next five years, surveyors have forecast prices will rise 4% per year in London, and 3% nationally. The Rics survey is widely seen as a good indicator of future house price changes. A slight moderation in the rate of decline in demand - the new buyer enquiries balance rose to -27% from -36% -appears to have lifted surveyors’ spirits. Contracting supply also is helping to prevent sharp price falls.

Comments made by many of the surveyors indicated that the responses in July were partly due to a seasonal slowdown, as well as uncertainty caused by Brexit. Part of the problem is that stock levels are at record low levels in many parts of the UK, and there is a lack of properties coming on to the market to replace those sold. The amount of new properties coming onto the market contracted at the fastest pace on record in the last three months.

In our Lincolnshire market, despite Brexit, demand in the market remains high - there is a supply shortage. So at present any property which is correctly priced will sell promptly and that is likely to continue right through to the end of 2016, assuming no ghastly exit proposals are brought to the fore in possible negotiations with the EU this autumn for the activation of Article 50 in early 2017. However, what we have also noted is that whilst through spring buyers optimism led them to be prepared to look at homes sellers present at rather optimistic prices, this has now changed. If a buyer cannot see the justification for an asking price, that home will not sell. Buyers are increasingly not prepared to gamble with their money. As a consequence, the experienced professional pricing advice our RICS trained valuers offer has never been so important to you if you are looking to sell your home this year at the best possible sale price and within the timescale you require.

Tony Wing DipSurv MRICS FNAEA

Sales Director
Lincoln Office
Email: tonywing@robert-bell.org
Tel: 01522 538888
Twitter: @robertbellandco

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