Prospective home buyers have returned to the market following the Brexit vote – only to find there is very little out there.
The RICS this morning described the property drought as “dire”, and a leading estate agent predicted that after the shock result of the US presidential election, things can only deteriorate.
As Donald Trump himself forecast, his election would be “Brexit, plus, plus, plus”.
The RICS report this morning, which covers October and was compiled well before the results of the election were known, said house hunters are returning to the market following the June Brexit referendum.
Home buyer demand has increased for the second consecutive month, said the RICS. Across the country, more of its agency members reported a rise in home buyer interest.
However, they also reported that the number of properties on the market dropped, continuing a two-year trend.
While prices have risen at a national level, central London respondents to the RICS survey report the eighth consecutive monthly drop in prices.
According to the RICS, the national rise in prices has been fuelled by a continued fall in the number of new properties on the market.
Respondents everywhere reported a further decline in new instructions over the month.
Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist, said: “The dire shortage of available housing across the UK is continuing to push prices upwards, regardless of the uncertainty linked to the ongoing discussions surrounding Brexit.
“We are only weeks away from the Autumn Statement, and it will be interesting to see what measures – if any – the Chancellor will put in place to increase housing supply and create a more affordable market.”
The RICS also reported that agreed sales rose marginally across the UK.
In the lettings market, tenant demand picked up firmly in the three months to October with 29% more surveyors reporting a rise in enquiries, rather than a fall.
Demand continues to outpace new supply in all areas apart from London, where for the second consecutive quarter, demand – and rents – fell.
Separately, north London estate agent Jeremy Leaf yesterday warned of a likely deterioration in the housing market, caused by fresh uncertainty in the wake of Trump’s election.
Leaf, a former UK housing spokesperson for the RICS, said: “We are likely to see a further period of uncertainty because he [Trump] will not be able to take any decisive action until he assumes power in mid-January.
“At the very least it looks like we will have fewer transactions, tighter lending criteria, less housebuilding and higher rents – which is exactly the opposite of what we’re looking for at the moment.”
However, some agents a few miles away in central London are anticipating doing deals with wealthy Americans looking to get out of the States, and also with Middle Eastern buyers who, until yesterday’s shock result, had been planning to purchase property in the US.
Property buying agencies are also hoping to cash in. See next story
2013 in the corridors of power somewhere;
‘We want to help first time buyers get on the property ladder…so let’s introduce schemes to help them to buy and make a first home more affordable……that will also stimulate demand….helping the economy’
In the corridors of power elsewhere in 2014;
‘We need to change the mortgage rules and make it a much more strenuous process to move house.’
So we have schemes introduced stimulating demand at the same time as rules and regulations limiting supply.
Guess what……within three years we have had huge price rises, particularly making property even more unaffordable for first time buyers, and a decreasing property supply that is becoming self fulfilling as people, thinking about selling, choose not to …..because they can’t see anywhere they want to move to.
Another fine example of joined up thinking in our country…..that ends up in the totally opposite effect of what was originally intended.
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Where is this shortage and how has it been measured. All my clients are reporting instructions are up and that there are MORE properties for sale and to let on the market in their locations and that it is lack of buyers/tenants if anything that has changed over recent weeks.
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Which region of the country is this?
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it must be in the popular area of ******** Hill…..
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I’m sorry but he is right.
We are in Essex and have the best 3 months for new instructions in 18 months. Supply really is up, significantly.
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Lucky you Iain.
In my Somerset patch instructions are as rare as hens teeth.
Where is the shortage? – Seems to be nearly everywhere except where you are – unless of course you are bullshutting us!
Thanks to Brexit and the hideous SDLT rates this shortage looks set to continue for months – this will very sadly lead to redundancies in large numbers. Only good and wealthy agents will survive – keep reading Property Eye, you’ll see.
Someone’s bound to call me downbeat but the truth always hurts.
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“All my clients are reporting instructions are up and that there are MORE properties for sale and to let on the market in their locations and that it is lack of buyers/tenants if anything that has changed over recent weeks.”
Jumping ship from HMS OTM and boarding SS Tit… – I mean SS Zoopla – did them the power of good, then…
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Bizarrely, where I live I have never seen so many properties for sale! Normally you only ever see sold boards and swamped with a myriad of specific applicant canvassing cards. We aren’t in the sticks, we are 20 minutes from London Bridge station and 20 mins from the M25 in the affluent South East, however it seems that supply is outstripping demand. Maybe is to do with affordability or lending criteria, however it’s a very different picture from the one described above.
According to Rightmove, when searching for an average 3 bed semi in my postcode there are 46 available and 29 under offer. This is unheard of. Frankly, I do not foresee a reversal of the Pilgrim fathers heading back to England. The problem is simply uncertainty and lack of clarity.
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Hi Eric, not meaning to be funny, but we have for many years regarded the property market in London as not just a different part of the country…but a different planet. Simply because everything we were experiencing was totally different to the news on the London market. Therefore your comments don’t surprise me…..especially as we are seeing more and more people relocating to our neck of the woods from the London area. Only problem is I haven’t got anything left to sell them!
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Perhaps they would like to move back 😉 That said, I don’t actually live in London, rather North Kent, but it’s close enough to make your point a very valid one.
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The question is how long have they been on the market…there are lots of areas where there is a back log as fewer have sold, normally due to gross over valuation, which is springing from lack of supply and agents trying to win new business and not being prepared to say the real reason why a house hasn’t sold. Get the price right and there are some fantastic buyers of a quality rarely matched.
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Tis not great out there and what is coming on near us, isn’t getting snapped up!
The market has Trumped. The slow down in sale agreed property near us is for me a welcoming sign of a much needed correction.
Collecting the right stock is key now moving forward. Let your competitor tarts list the crazy mine’s bigger and mine’s better vendors.
and hopefully the slow in people fighting over property near us will mean agents can start to promo the importance of a good agent (as the other story points out) and getting what you pay for.
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