West Midlands’ housing market sees continued fall in sales

The West Midlands housing market is losing momentum as a lack of stock continues to impede sales growth, according to a new survey.

RICS UK Residential Market Survey indicates that agreed sales and new buyer enquiries have fallen for the seventh consecutive month, with 34% more respondents seeing a decline over March.

A lack of new stock coming to market, which is driving prices up, is to blame, according to the report, which states that respondents have reported fall in the number of houses being put up for sale 30 consecutive months.

The average time to complete purchase has fallen to 14 weeks, which is the shortest completion process recorded for all regions in the UK.

It is predicted that prices will remain flat for the next three months, but that prices in the region will start to increase in the next twelve months.

Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist, said the report’s findings show it is unlikely that the drop in housing market activity is likely to be reversed soon.

“Apart from the implications this has for the market itself, it also has the potential to impact the wider economy contributing to a softer trend in household spending,” he said.

“This could make Bank of England deliberations around a May hike in interest rates, which is pretty much odds-on at the moment, a little more finely balanced than would otherwise be the case. The downshift in sales for the time being continues to be more visible in London and the South East with many other parts of the country continuing to show rather greater resilience. Feedback on expectations regarding transactions suggest this divergence will persist over the coming months.”