New enquiries from home seekers were up for the sixth month in a row, with the number of surveyors reporting increased interest at its highest point for almost ten years. In April there were 41 per cent more surveyors seeing a rise in enquiries than saw a fall. This was up from 32 per cent in March.
Despite these encouraging figures for the market, estate agents still managed to sell less than one property per week on average; the statistics showed 10.6 properties were sold on average in the a three month period. This was a rise from the previous figure of 9.7 in March.
RICS believes that a revival of the housing market is being prevented by falling prices and reduced activity which is putting sellers off. The Institution also cites the cost of a Home Information Pack as another deterrent.
One section of the report said: ?Anecdotal evidence suggest the fall in new vendor instruction this month is due to the change in the rules governing Home Information Packs that were introduced on April 5th.?
Surveyors are still reporting falling prices rather than rising prices, but the trend is slowing. With the increase in sales-to-stock ratio still on the increase, RICS believes that prices could stabilise later in the year.
Spokesman for RICS, Jeremy Leaf said: ?There are tentative signs that the market is starting to pick up but transactions remain at very low levels and we are unlikely to see significant improvement while money remains in short supply and the employment picture is uncertain.?
Mr Leaf thought that transaction levels might benefit from more supply, but HIPS legislation, falling prices and low interest rates were putting sellers off.
?House prices could stabilise in the coming months but prospective purchasers – and first-time buyers particularly – will continue to encounter challenges while banks maintain current loan to value ratios and make accessibility difficult even for those who have accumulated considerable equity in their existing properties,? he said.
