A Housing Report for February has recently been issued by the NAEA Propertymark (National Association of Estate Agents).
The report covers various aspect of the property market, highlighting sales, supply as well as demand.
During February, the number of agreed sales reached a ten-year high. Per branch, the figure reached 11; September 2007 was the last time the number exceeded ten, suggesting that buyer confidence is increasing. Estate agents agreed eight sales per branch during January, growing from December’s figure of six.
Of the sales made in February, 74% were lower than the original suggested asking price. This indicates that sellers are adopting more of a pragmatic approach when it comes to selling their home.
Despite the higher levels of sales, the proportion of those who were buying for the first time dropped to 22%. This can be compared to January’s figure of 30%.
Where supply is concerned, February saw the number of available properties increase. Compared to January’s stock of 38 on estate agent books, February’s figure grew to 44.
This is a 26% rise in comparison to last February when per branch, estate agents only had 35 properties available.
In terms of demand, the number of registered home buyers per branch remained at 425 for the second consecutive month.
The recent Housing White Paper was also touched upon in the report. Under one in ten (7%) of estate agents feel that the remedies set out in the White Paper to be sufficient to ‘fix’ the housing market.
43% think that it won’t make any difference, whilst 39% believe that although the proposals could make a positive impact, they’re unsure how.
Commenting on the report was Mark Hayward. The Chief Executive of NAEA Propertymark stated: “The number of sales agreed reaching a 10 year high indicates the housing market is moving in the right direction. However, FTBs need to be a priority – the number of sales made to the group dipped in February when it should be growing. As house prices continue to rise, the market’s most vulnerable buyers are being priced out and the only way to address this is to increase housing stock. The Government have pledged yet again to build more homes, but our members aren’t feeling optimistic about the plans. If promises are kept and we see construction sites set up across the UK, we’ll be in a better position in a few years than the stark reality we will be facing if this doesn’t happen.”
