Property sales got off to a slow start in January, according to the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), although activity is expected to pick up over next few months.
Interest in home-buying neither increased nor decreased in the New Year, with new buyer enquiries returning a net balance of zero. Agreed sales were up by a small net balance of 3%, However, the short-term outlook is more positive, with sales expected to increase over the next year.
More than half of respondents (55%) said they expected UK property prices to rise over the next 12 months, with 22% reporting higher prices already in January. Northern Ireland and the North West of England are seeing some of the strongest prices increases, with more modest growth in Yorkshire & the Humber and in the South East.
Tarrant Parsons, head of analytics at RICS, said: “The latest survey feedback indicates that growth in buyer demand lost a bit of momentum through the early part of the year, with this flatter picture likely linked to the turbulence seen across money markets in the first half of January.
“Nevertheless, moving forward, respondents continue to envisage a slightly positive near-term outlook for sales activity. This should be further supported by the unwinding of some of the pressures around mortgage interest rates over the past couple of weeks.”
Lettings market flat
The lettings market also proved broadly flat in January, according to RICS, with only 2% of contributors to the survey said they’d seeing an increase in tenant demand.
The volume of new landlord instructions remains in negative territory, however, at -19% for over the last quarter. According to the survey, this imbalance between demand and supply is likely to see rental prices increase going forward, with 23% of respondents expecting to see rents rise over the next three months.
Recent weeks have seen buy to let mortgage rates start to ease slightly for landlords,following February’s base rate cut.
