Housing market survey

Citation

(1999), "Housing market survey", Property Management, Vol. 17 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.1999.11317aab.020

Housing market survey

Housing market survey

Keywords Housing market, Statistics

The recent quarter of a per cent interest rate cut will provide little stimulation for the housing market, says the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in its October 1998 survey of the market in England and Wales.

According to the survey of chartered surveyor estate agents, the housing market in September remained at its weakest point in two-and-a-half years. A net balance of 1 per cent of chartered surveyors reported a rise in house prices over the last three months. Confidence has declined as the year wears on ­ in August a balance of 11 per cent of chartered surveyors reported price rises, while in April the figure was 48 per cent. The proportion of surveyors reporting an outright drop in prices rose to 13.9per cent, marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase. A total of 71 per cent of respondents report no change in prices.

Excluding slight regional variations, the market has flattened out. The South-East, London and East Anglia are generally seeing prices stabilise or fall slightly. In the Midlands and the North, however, prices are broadly unchanged, though chartered surveyors are reporting some increases mainly at the top end of the market. The supply of homes is more variable, with more properties coming on to the market in the South than earlier in the year, but fewer in the North.

Home sales have stayed at lacklustre levels during the last few months. The average number of homes sold per chartered surveyor, fell 6.7 per cent for the third quarter of 1998 on the same quarter last year, having fallen 5.9 per cent in the second quarter. Small declines in prices are increasingly being seen at the bottom end of the market. Meanwhile, the top end of the market is holding up better for detached and country homes, but the volatility of the financial markets is having a negative impact, particularly in the south of the country.

RICS Housing Market spokesman, Ian Perry, said:

There is no escaping the conclusion that the market has slowed despite a rise in average earnings. The impact of higher pay awards on housing demand has been off-set by growing concerns over employment prospects, and the probability of a slowdown in economic growth next year. Everything points to an increasingly fragile market over the next few months.