Overview into Current Housing Market
Date Published 13 May 2024
The most recent Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) UK Residential Survey results have been released and paints a picture of what the next 12 months looks like for the rental and sales market. RICS is a sentiment survey which measures trends through the net balance of opinion amongst those surveyors polled.
With the lettings market, respondents to the survey have suggested its losing momentum, with the net balance for instructions coming to -13, compared to -18 last month. Rents are still expected to rise with a net balance of +33, this marks a three-year low for the near-term rental growth expectations indicator.
Simon Rubinsohn, RICS' chief economist, comments: 'As far as the lettings market is concerned, an increasing number of respondents are also drawing attention to affordability constraints, and this is reflected in a more modest pace of rental growth. But a fundamental problem in the market across much of the country remains the imbalance between demand and supply with new instructions continuing to decline."
On the sales side, new buyer enquires have dropped from +6 to -1 in April, which saw the end of three consecutive monthly positive results. Buyer demand across England is mixed, however in the south and London saw momentum slowing.
The rise in instructions had a net balance of +23 in April. This is the most positive figure since September 2020, which could show sellers are more 'likely to be feeling more comfortable in listing their properties as current market conditions continue to improve following the pandemic.'
The April report indicates an improvement in the agreed sales indicator, with a net balance reading of +5 compared to -5 last month. While this is the most positive reading seen since May 2021, it reflects only a minor uptick in monthly sales.
At Adams Estates we hope to see more instructions come onto the market so this will match the demand of tenants for rental properties. As for sales, the rise in instructions has been great news and we have seen the improvement in instructions and valuations on our side as well.
