RICS’ Housing Market Survey showed that surveyors’ optimism in the market has rebounded with the improving weather and the prospect of a post-election bounce.
As ever, there were distinct regional variations in house price growth, with London leading the upsurge, as 55% more surveyors reported an increase in the capital, up from 32%.
The 245 surveyors polled reported property prices rising in every region, bar Yorkshire and Humberside, and Wales, while price growth in Northern Ireland continued to be negative, though at a lesser rate than in March.
Activity is expected to rise over the coming months, with many surveyors anticipating a post-election bounce. Sales expectations have jumped from 6% to 25%, the highest reading since October last year.
Surveyors’ price expectations have also increased from a negative 2% to a positive 7%.
In addition, newly agreed sales turned positive for the first time in 2010 during April, with 12% more surveyors reporting agreed sales compared to a negative reading of 8% in March. Agreed sales in London leapt from 1% to 45% during the month, although the strongest reading came from the North West.
Another positive sign was that the average number of completed sales rose for the first time in three months to 17.4% per surveyor. With the average number of properties on surveyors’ books falling by 8.9% to 61.3 per surveyor, the sales to stock ratio, a key indicator of future house price inflation, increased from 25% in March to 28% in April. This is the first increase of this indicator this year and its highest reading since December 2009.
Additionally, 11% of surveyors reported a rise in new instructions, while new buyer enquiries rose from 1% to 8%.
Jeremy Leaf, spokesman for RICS, said: “For much of 2010, the housing market has been under the shadow of the General Election with the gap between supply and demand growing wider as potential house buyers opted to stand on the sidelines awaiting the outcome of the poll.
“However, the start of spring has seen renewed optimism with the good weather improving sentiment and surveyors expecting an increase in both sales and house prices. The housing market often sees an increase in new instructions in the early part of the year with sales boosted in the spring and this year has been no exception.”
