Renewed Interest from Home Buyers.

by Mark Johnston

Renewed  Interest from Home Buyers.

The UK housing market has been rather subdued since 2009. However  mortgage rates have fallen in recent months, it appears to be driven by the Bank of England’s Funding For Lending scheme pushing cheap money through banks and building societies to borrowers.

The latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) report states that the property market has started to show flickers of life.

The number of people looking to purchase houses for sale in the UK has risen, according to a recent report.

Demand from would be home buyers has risen at its fastest rate in almost three years, boosting hopes of a pick-up in sales in the run up to Christmas and into the new year.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) also reported that its member agents had seen the biggest rise in new buyer enquiries since December 2009, with 18 per cent more reporting rising rather than falling enquiries, up from 5 per cent the previous month.

The North East and theWest Midlands saw the biggest surges in demand, with a net balance of 56% and 35% of surveyors respectively reporting rises rather than falls.

The number of visits to the zoopla property websites in October reached over 28.5 million, a figure that was 18.6% ahead of the total combined figure for Zoopla, FindaProperty and Primelocation in the same period last year.  

Rightmove, another property website also reports that search activity is up 20% and inquiries up 11% on this time a year ago through the Rightmove website. They also report buoyancy in certain areas of the country, stating that the current market and enquiry levels is a good ‘spring board’ for 2013.

Russell Quirk, founder of low cost estate agent eMoov.co.uk, said: “A boost in buyer activity is a step in the right direction, but at the same time there needs to be more willingness on the side of the seller, to be more flexible when it come price”.

Meanwhile some estate agents warn that while potential buyers have seen a boost from this, there still remains a big gap between what people are willing to pay for property and stubbornly high asking prices.

Experts suggested that the mixed messages being delivered by the major property market reports reflect the struggle for direction with in the market.

Therefore Surveyors are hopeful that the increase in demand will lead to a rise in housing sales over the coming months the market ‘desperately needs’ the rise in housing sales in order to stabilise.

President of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), Michael Jones said that there is “clear evidence of demand” for properties for sale in the UK. “Our agents are continuing to make sales and it is particularly pleasing to see sales figures remain constant at this time of the year.”

 In conculsion the risk to house prices and activity appear to be easing, however, it is still far too early to call an end to the housing market stalemate.

 

 

 

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