13
Oct
Lack of supply underpinning prices
A lack of supply is still underpinning the house price recovery
says RICS September housing market survey.
Significantly, the headline RICS house price balance recorded
the highest figure since the onset of the credit crunch.
The net balance of Chartered Surveyors reporting rises rather
than falls in house prices reached a positive reading of 22 in
September, up from 10 percent in August - this is the highest
result since May 2007 when the net balance was 25 percent.
The South of England is 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 percent and 52 percent
respectively. Elsewhere, the picture is less rosy with Wales and
Yorkshire and Humberside registering negative net balances of 15
and 18 percent.
Last month's optimism that vendors were starting to return to
the market has proved a little premature. A net balance of only 4
percent of surveyors reported that new instructions had increased
in September, compared to a reading of 12 percent in August.
Correspondingly, the average number of unsold properties on
surveyors' books remained unchanged at 64.
Meanwhile, transaction levels continued to improve in September
with sales per surveyor rising to 18 over the past three months. 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.
The pace of improvement in buyer interest slowed for the third
consecutive month. The net balance of surveyors reporting an
increase rather than a decrease in new buyer enquiries slipped from
47 percent in August to 36 percent in September. The number of
surveyors reporting a rise in new buyer enquires in London dropped
back from 71 percent to 45 percent.