Prices rise as buyers battle short supply

The Royal Institute of Surveyors ( RICS) have blamed the election uncertainty for the diminished supply of property to the sales market.

According to the latest RICS UK Residential Market Survey, the fall in new instructions lead to price rises in April across all parts of the UK as buyers battled with a shortage of supply. 

For the first time since August 2014, RICS surveyors saw prices rise in every area of the UK, with 72% predicting further price rises over the next twelve months.

As regards the rental market, surveyors report seeing strong demand and expect to see continued rental growth over 2015.

House prices were driven up again in April as the data showed the third consecutive monthly decline in supply with new instructions falling at their fastest rate since May 2009, according to the latest RICS UK Residential Market Survey.

Jeremy Blackburn, RICS Head of UK Policy commented 

"The affordability and availability of homes in the UK is now a national emergency and addressing this crisis must be the priority for the new government. The last time we were building 300,000 homes was in 1963 under Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government, which utilised both public and private building.

We need a coherent and coordinated house building strategy across all tenures. This should include measures that will kick-start a supply-side revolution, such as mapping brownfield, addressing planning restrictions and creating a housing observatory to assess the underlying economic and social drivers of housing and provide the impetus for solutions."

Blackburn warns that -

"Introducing demand-side measures such as extending Right to Buy will not see the Conservatives deliver on their promise of 1m homes by 2020."


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