House prices forced up by lack of supply

HOUSE sales in the North West fell in March as the number of properties coming onto the market also went down for the ninth consecutive month, pushing prices upwards.

The supply versus demand imbalance led to 37% more surveyors in the region reporting increased house prices in March – up from 19% in February.

According to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) residential market survey 28% more sector professionals expect prices to rise over the next three months, compared to 21% in February.

RICS North West residential spokesperson, John Halman of Gascoigne Halman estate agents said: “Spring is a great time of year to capitalise on increasingly favourable market conditions.

“Some homeowners may be tempted to hold back from putting their property up for sale until after the general election but, historically, such tactics can often backfire with a glut of property coming onto the market as soon as election day is behind us.

“In election year it is often the early entrants who look back with greater satisfaction in the second half of the year.”

Jeremy Blackburn, RICS head of policy, added: “The Conservative Party’s proposal this week to extend Right-To-Buy will help relatively small numbers of tenants to move into home ownership, without doing anything to solve the shortage in overall housing supply.

“Aspirational home ownership is at the core of our economy but we must ensure that we have a future stock across all tenures and particularly for those on lower incomes.

“The proposed brownfield fund is a welcome means to unlocking land supply for more houses to be built in the next Parliament however, it still falls short of a comprehensive housing strategy.”