Housing market boosted by spring optimism
THE West Midlands housing market rebounded in April fuelled by better weather and the prospect of a post-election boost, surveyors said today.
According to the latest RICS UK Housing Market survey, 17% more chartered surveyors last month reported a rise than a fall in house prices. The figure is up from 9% in March.
London led the upsurge, while in the West Midlands 6% more surveyors reported house prices going up – a big improvement from the 8% fall seen in March.
Elsewhere, surveyors are reporting house price rises in every region except for Wales and Yorkshire and Humberside.
Activity is expected to rise over the coming months with many surveyors anticipating a post-election bounce. However, the survey was obviously compiled before the hung Parliament was known.
The sales expectations net balance rose from a negative 5% to a positive 10% in the West Midlands, compared to a rise from 6% to 25% nationally.
Meanwhile the price expectations net balance rose from a negative 23% to a positive 1% within the region.
The newly agreed sales net balance turned positive for the first time this year. Nationally 12% more surveyors saw vendors selling their properties, up from a negative 8% in March.
The net balance on newly agreed sales in the West Midlands moved up two percentage points but remained negative, while the strongest reading was in the North West.
Nationally, the average number of completed sales rose for the first time in three months to 17.4% per surveyor across the UK, while the average stock of property on surveyors’ books decreased by 6% on the month to 61 properties per surveyor.
This had the effect of raising the sales:stock ratio – a key indicator of future house price inflation – from 25% in March to 28% in April. This is the first upward movement of this indicator in 2010.
A net balance of 12% of surveyors in the West Midlands saw a rise in new instructions while new buyer enquiries rose from a negative 2% to a positive 19%, compared to a rise from 1% to 8% nationally.
Ben Hudson, RICS West Midlands spokesman and director of Greenhill & Brownfield, said: “For much of 2010, the housing market has been under the shadow of the general election with the gap between supply and demand growing wider as potential house buyers opted to stand on the sidelines awaiting the outcome of the poll.
“However, the start of spring has seen renewed optimism with the good weather improving sentiment and surveyors hope to see an increase in both sales and house prices.”
“The housing market often sees an increase in new instructions in the early part of the year with sales boosted in the spring and this year has been no exception,” he added.
