Region’s housing market steadily improving, says report
YORKSHIRE’S housing market is continuing to steadily improve according to the latest RICS housing market survey.
The net balance of chartered surveyors in the region reporting rises rather than falls in house prices improved to a negative reading of 18% from -27% back in August and -36% in July.
RICS said that even though figures were still in negative territory they were evidence that the market is slowly recovering.
The South is still leading the upturn in prices, with the net balance of surveyors reporting rises rather than falls for London and the South East climbing to 79% and 52% respectively.
The latest housing market survey also revealed that even more vendors in the region are returning to the market, with a positive net balance of 15% of chartered surveyors reporting new instructions had increased in September compared to a negative reading of 8% in August.
Transaction levels also continue to improve in Yorkshire in September with sales per surveyor rising to 20 over the past three months.
Newly agreed sales also increased from 13% in August to 44% in September. As a result, the closely watched sales to stock ratio (a measure of market slack and a lead indicator of future prices) edged upwards a little further.
It has now risen for nine consecutive months and stands at 29, its highest level since December 2007.
Buyer interest in the region has also increased for the third consecutive month. The net balance of surveyors in Yorkshire reported a rise rather than a decrease in new buyer enquiries increased from 39% in August to 46% in September.
Comparatively, the number of surveyors in the South reporting a rise in new buyer enquires dropped back from 71% in August to 45% in September largely due to the lack of houses on the market available for people to enquire about.
RICS Yorkshire spokesman Jon Charters-Reid of Charters-Reid & Associates, said: “It’s fantastic that the market in our region is steadily making a good recovery. The downturn has meant that people have had to be more innovative in finding funding for buying houses, which is evident in the housing market survey results.
“Over the next few months we expect to see more new build homes being built and coming on to the market again as builders and developers have gained confidence in the market, thanks to the increase in enquiries, demand and house sales.”
He added: “It looks as though the green shoots are beginning to really grow and if the banks bring back 95% home loans this would really accelerate the housing market’s recovering in our region.”
