A monthly insight – UK Residential Market Surveys
28/10/24Each month the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) releases its UK Residential Market Survey. We find this document provides valuable insights into the current state of the housing market nationwide. It covers aspects such as house prices, new instructions, new buyer enquiries, agreed sales and the lettings market.
The UK Residential Market Survey is used by the Government, the Bank of England and other institutions and organisations, such as the IMF, as an indicator of current and future conditions in UK residential sales and lettings. The media often use it as an indicator of the buoyancy or otherwise of the property market, while investors also keep an eye on its valuations and findings.
This are the particular items of interest that we’ve discovered in the September 2024 report.
An encouraging outlook
The overall outlook is that sales market activity continues to display a more positive trend. The new buyer enquiries indicator remains in positive territory. Agreed sales and new listings are also displaying stronger momentum compared to a few months ago. House prices are also rising again, after a period of stagnation. The September results point to a sustained improvement in market activity – measures in demand, sales and new lettings all ‘continue to return positive readings’, which is good news. However, it should be noted that this ‘recent improvement is coming from a relatively soft starting point’. As with all data, it can be interpreted in a variety of ways and is also presented in seasonal and regional breakdowns.
As well as this data, there is also extensive commentary from RICS members on the subject of Sales and Lettings, observing market trends and conditions. This is extremely insightful as to how surveyors are finding market conditions on the ground and the challenges and progress the markets are facing.
Many commentators mention the underlying unpredictability and instability in the housing market following the general election result – but that stability and confidence are beginning to grow once more. Most parts of the UK are now seeing house prices increase to a certain degree, with rises among the strongest since April 2022. As for lettings, demand continues to rise and with this, rental prices will rise too.
There’s detailed information on September 2024’s RICS UK Residential Market Survey, which is available to download online: https://www.rics.org/content/dam/ricsglobal/documents/market-surveys/September_2024_RICS_UK_Residential_Market_Survey.pdf