New buyer enquiries continue to rise say Rics

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by Kay Murchie

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said today that new buyer enquiries continued to rise in April - the sixth consecutive monthly rise and the fastest pace since August 1999.

Meanwhile, house prices in England and Wales fell at their slowest pace in 15 months in the three months to the end of April, according to Rics.

However, the Rics survey found that more surveyors expected prices to continue to fall rather than rise, albeit the fall could stabilise in the next few months.

In the meantime, sales have fallen considerably with just 10.6 homes sold on average per UK surveyor in the three months to the end of April, a 41% fall when compared with the same period a year ago.

Jeremy Leaf of Rics said: “Transactions remain at very low levels, and we are unlikely to see significant improvements while money remains in short supply and the employment picture is uncertain.”

In related news today, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said the worst of the recession may be over for Britain.

The OECD has gathered its evidence by measuring a range of statistics, including trends in stock markets and business surveys.

The influential think tank said while output is still shrinking, there have been some green shoots of recovery with the possibility of the recession being over by August.

Furthermore, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) announced today that the British High Street saw a flurry of shoppers in April, as a result of the good weather.

The BRC said like-for-like sales, which excludes sales from new shops, rose by 4.6% in April, compared with the same month last year.

However, the BRC did caution that the worry for the retail sector this year is rising unemployment, which will see consumers continue to rein in spending.