Subdued market conditions remain, according to May’s Residential Market Survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), while forward-looking measures suggest a less downbeat sentiment than recorded over the last two months. However, more surveyors still expect sales to decline in the coming months, rather than increase.
New buyer enquiries remain low, but the situation has not worsened over the past month – the first time this indicator has not fallen since January, which the RICS said could signal the early stages of a more stable picture emerging. Similarly, the pace of decline in sales is no longer intensifying.
House prices are also continuing to decline, but the pace at which they are dropping is levelling off. However, further price reductions are expected in the coming months.
Jeremy Leaf, North London estate agent and a former RICS residential chair, said: “Downward pressure remains on the price of flats in particular, due principally to worries about the longer-term impact of war in the Middle East on the cost of living.
“On the other hand, viewings are steady and the overwhelming majority of agreed sales are staying that way, although they are lengthening as it becomes increasingly tricky to inject urgency while choice in most price ranges is plentiful.”
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