Would-be house buyers, who may have been interested in registering with estate agents, were frozen in their tracks thanks to the extreme weather conditions at the start of this year, which has led to a fall in new instructions and had the knock-on effect of having shoppers stay indoors.
For the first time in 14 months, buyer enquiries fell in January and new instructions from sellers also dropped compared to December?s levels, according to chartered surveyors. The Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors (RICS) also told BBC News that they had collected data that showed the bad weather caused fewer people to go and view homes.
Despite the negative signs of the housing market brought on by the extreme weather conditions, surveyors still expect house prices to rise in 2010. It?s believed from 24 per cent of surveyors, that this year housing prices will be up, compared to 12 per cent of surveyors in December.
January saw 32 per cent more surveyors say that house prices rose. This was up from the 30 per cent recorded the previous month.
RICS spokesperson, Ian Perry, told BBC News: ?Activity and interest is likely to pick up in the coming months as the market experiences a spring bounce.? He added: ?House prices are likely to rise in the short term but if more supply continues to come onto the market, it is possible that the market will run out of steam in the latter part of the year.?
Retailers are hoping to blame the extreme weather for January?s performance, which saw the smallest growth in sales in January for 15 years.
