The monthly Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Survey has just come out and makes for fairly gloomy reading. However, what it is saying is not what we are seeing in the parts of Scotland we operate in so please note the comments later in this piece after the coverage of what the RICS survey says.
What is the RICS Saying?
- The UK housing market faced a stalemate during June, as demand failed to pick up and supply of new property fell back;
- Demand for property showed little change in June;
- New instructions, which had been stronger in April and May, fell back to a net balance of +1 per cent (from +14 per cent) in June, indicating that sellers are now holding off from putting their properties on the market. This was in part attributed to uncertainty over the economy and a ‘wait and see’ attitude from potential vendors;
- Surveyors note that properties are still selling, but only if priced realistically;
- House prices at a national level continued to slip during June, with 27 per cent more surveyors reporting price falls rather than rises – the negative net balance was little different from the previous month’s reading (-28 per cent).
What Are We Seeing in Scotland?
It should be noted that MOV8 Real Estate operates predominantly on the east coast of Scotland, although we do market some properties through the central belt of Scotland too. June ended up being our second-busiest month of the year in terms of new instructions AND sales. Only March of 2011 shaded ahead in terms of new instructions. So our experience of the market isn’t quite what the RICS is suggesting. Prices do seem stable, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Buyer and seller demand also seems stable.
The RICS survey covers estate agents who are also surveyors and members of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. It’s a good indication of what’s going on in certain areas, but it certainly doesn’t provide a very accurate representation of what is happening in Scotland where far fewer estate agents, proportionately, are RICS members.
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