Despite long term sentiment proving increasingly positive, the next three months will see buyer enquiries, residential housing stock, newly agreed sales and property prices all decline further.
According to the RICS Residential Survey report for October, new buyer enquiries fell for the second month in a row, displaying a UK wide net balance figure of -16%.
Whilst this represents a 1% improvement on September’s figure, it suggests that buyers remain uncertain about entering the market until the political landscape becomes a lot more certain.
Housing supply appears to be an even greater concern than the lack of potential buyers according to respondents of the survey as new instructions fell for the fourth consecutive month.
The estimated pipeline of UK wide housing entering the market is at the lowest figure since the series began in 2017, marking a net balance of -49%.
The report also highlighted that market appraisals have declined annually, suggesting the flow of new property will remain weak for the foreseeable future.
Given the lack of buyers and sellers, it is unsurprising that newly agreed sales continued to decline in October. However, the market is showing some resilience with the negative net balance improving when compared with September.
Respondents in October viewed newly agreed sales as declining but the net balance of -18% is a considerable improvement on September’s sentiment of -27%.
Respondents speculated that these difficult market conditions will continue to drive headline house prices down. However, the long term sentiment for house prices has improved significantly, rising from a net balance of +18% in September to +27% in the present.
The average time taken to complete a sale was also seen to improve in October with initial instruction to completion reducing from 19 weeks in September to 17 weeks in the latest report.
The near term sales outlook is also offering a more optimistic feel in October with respondents recording a positive net balance for the first time in three months and rising to +5% from the -7% in September.
Respondent sentiment over the next 12 months boasted the most positive net balance in 2019 with +23% of respondents confident the market will grow over the next year.
Is the property sector set to suffer further declines in the short term? What pressure is this placing on the conveyancing sector?
