An increase in activity for the UK housing market during October has seen rising sales levels and an increase in demand, according to the latest RICS UK Housing Market Survey (8th November 2011).
October’s rise in sales levels has been attributed by many surveyors to a growing realism from sellers who are now more inclined to take offers in order to secure a sale. 8 per cent more chartered surveyors report that new sales levels rose rather than fell following a dip last month (-3 per cent).
A good indicator of buyer demand levels is the number of new buyer enquiries and these edged up slightly from +4 in September to +7 for October.
Highlighting the increased supply levels, new instructions grew from -4 in September to +3 in October.
Completed sales are at the strongest levels since April with an average of 15 per surveyor (by branch) over the past three months.
Despite this prices still dipped slightly in October with 24 per cent more surveyors indicating that prices fell, up from 23 per cent in September, although over half of the respondents suggested that the fall was only between 0 and 2 per cent.
The only region to record rising prices is London, it is still the only region recording a positive price expectations net balance.
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