United Kingdom housing market momentum continues to ebb with declining sales and the new buyer enquiries series edging lower, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said Thursday. Mortgage lenders Halifax and Nationwide have reported month-on-month falls in house prices and the slowest annual price growth in almost four years at less than 4 per cent.
But estate agents believe house prices in all parts of the United Kingdom will grow over the next twelve months.
Some parts of London appear to have been hit particularly hard, with estate agents and developers resorting to offering free cars and other incentives to try to tempt buyers.
A measure of inquiries from potential buyers fell to minus 4 from 1 in March, RICS said in its monthly survey of real-estate agents published Thursday.
A survey of more than 600 estate agency branches found the average number of properties was "hovering" close to record lows.
Some 15 per cent more respondents saw new instructions drop in April, while new buyer enquiries were unchanged nationally, having failed to see any meaningful growth since November 2016. This finding follows a recent claim from a leading property-finding firm that the once super-heated central London market had turned into a "burnt-out core".
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A combination of high houses prices and stagnant wages is dampening buyer demand, according to RICS, and market uncertainty caused by Theresa May's decision to call a snap general election in June is likely to have had an impact in the short-term.
Surveyors cited a lack of choice, uncertainty due to the calling of an early election, and the stamp duty changes as factors hampering activity.
Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist, said: "Although the picture clearly does vary across the country, the bulk of the feedback we are receiving points to a fairly flat summer for both activity and prices".
Brian Murphy, head of leading at the Mortgage Advice Bureau, said: 'The report issued by the Rics this morning is sentiment based, so provides us with anecdotal feedback rather than hard data, although this does give us a good "temperature check" in terms of how surveyors view the market now.
The data from property website Zoopla showed that 87% of British homeowners believed that homes in their region would grow in value over the next six months.
A fall in demand from buy-to-let investors is also thought to have affected the market.
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