Casa Blog – UK Property Search

Confidence in the UK housing market has fallen to its lowest since records began in 1978, according to the latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The latest RICS UK Housing Market Survey, published today, shows that 78.5% more surveyors reported a fall than a rise in house prices in the three months to March.

The average of reported falls has increased for eight months, said the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The group said the regional picture was “even more depressed”.

In the East Midlands the figure was 89% and in East Anglia it was 86%.

Prices fell faster in all regions of England and Wales, except Yorkshire and Humberside.

Scotland is the only area of the UK where prices are climbing.

Jeremy Leaf, RICS spokesman, said the that price falls are being driven by the inability of many to secure finance rather than an influx of supply into the market.

“Sentiment is at a very low ebb and will continue to remain depressed while the economy suffers from this unique liquidity blight.

“The slowdown in prices is directly attributable to a lack of available finance [for mortgages] which has hit demand; however, until new supply increases dramatically a significant crash remains unlikely.”

The number of new buyer enquiries declined for the sixteenth month in a row - at the fastest pace since March 2003 – with some 49% more surveyors reporting a fall than a rise, against 39% in January.

The number of agreed sales in the UK market also fell by 20% during the month.

On the supply side of the market, new instructions to sell property fell at the fastest pace since last September, providing little evidence of forced selling to date.

Encouragingly, the stock of unsold property on surveyors’ books showed signs of stabilising in March, having fallen by 1.3% on the month – remaining 50% up on annual terms.

Price expectations are now at the lowest level since October 1998.

The situation could weaken further in the near future, according to RICS, but may prove beneficial to first-time buyers and other groups presently excluded from the market.

‘The next six months will be a crucial period for homeowners but would-be buyers with larger deposits may see this market as an opportunity to acquire property in areas to which they could not previously aspire as recently as the end of 2007,’ said Mr Leaf.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 11:07 pm and is filed under Property Market News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.