Rising house prices in the UK blamed on lack of supply
RICS UK Housing Market Survey, August 2009
The RICS house price net balance turned positive for the first time in two years says the latest RICS UK housing market survey.
The net balance of Chartered Surveyors reporting rises rather than falls in house prices reached a positive reading of 10.7 percent from a negative reading of 5.7 percent – this is the highest result since May 2007 when the net balance was 24.8 percent.
The national average has been boosted by the data from the South of England. The net balance of surveyors reporting price rises rather than falls for London and the South East rose to 43 percent and 39 percent respectively.
There are further signs that the change in news flow on the housing market may be slowly encouraging vendors back into the marketplace. A net balance of 12 percent of surveyors reported that new instructions had increased in August, compared to a reading of 4 percent in July. Correspondingly, the average number of unsold properties on surveyors’ books also rose to 63 from 61 properties.
Despite this, the sales to stock ratio – a measure of market slack and a lead indicator of future prices- continues to edge upwards. It has now risen for eight consecutive months and stands at 27, its highest level since January 2008.
While activity in the housing market continues to improve, the pace of improvement did slow slightly last month. The net balance of surveyors reporting an increase rather than a decrease in new buyer enquiries edged down, from 61 percent in July, to 49 percent in August.
Looking forward, the strengthening in activity and sentiment has boosted surveyor optimism. The net balance of surveyors expecting prices to rise rather than fall over the next three months rose to 17 percent from 7 percent in July.
In the regions, the number of sales per surveyor over the last three months was highest in the East and West Midlands at 22 and 19 respectively and above the national average of 17. London actually had the lowest number of sales at only 12 per surveyor. Sales expectations were strongest in the North West followed by the South East, Wales and the North.
Topics: Britain, Economy, England, housing, lack of supply, real estate, UK, UK housing market survey, United Kingdom
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