Surveyors predict green shoots for housing market by year end
SURVEYORS expect the housing market to pick up towards the end of the year, according to a leading survey released this morning.
Sales expectations have jumped to their highest level since May 2010, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) announced today.
The net balance of surveyors expecting a higher number of home sales in the coming three months soared to +26 per cent in September, up from 13 per cent.
They are also slightly less downbeat about prices, with a net balance of nine per cent predicting that house prices will fall over the coming three months, up from -12.
“Prices are still dipping but at a much lower rate than seen in previous months,” commented RICS director Peter Bolton King.
The survey showed that yet again London was the only region to record rising house prices in September, with prices declining in every other recorded UK region.
Despite sinking prices to date across much of the UK, a separate survey by the website Zoopla showed that nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of homeowners believe that house prices in their area will rise over the next six months.
The average homeowner foresees a 3.4 per cent rise in their local property prices over the next six months, even though several surveys show prices declining.