Landlord and BTL Blog: Uncertainty in the housing market

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Uncertainty in the housing market - RICS

The RICS UK Residential Market Survey for April 2016 talks of -

A drop in demand for the first time since March 2015
Price rises caused by a lack of supply
Long term outlook supports continuing price rises across the UK
A drop in buyer interest

Following the buy-to-let rush that preceded the 1 April tax rise deadline, and with continued uncertainty caused by the EU Referendum, interest from buyers dropped in April - with 22% more surveyors reporting falling demand.

RICS surveyors predict that EU Referendum nerves will mean property sales will remain flat over the coming three months outside of London, with the capital expected to perform poorly with many surveyors in London predicting falls.

Simon Rubinsohn, RICS Chief Economist comments -

'Uncertainty is a word that features heavily in the feedback we are receiving from members responding to the survey and is contributing to the flatter trend in the latest data. More ominous is the expectation that both prices and rents will head materially higher over medium term despite existing affordability concerns with the supply pipeline continuing to fall short of household growth notwithstanding the various levers the government is pulling to try and drive development.'

Increasingly agents are seeing rises in tenant demand that are not matched by rental property supply leading to a positive outlook for rental growth, predicted to be an average of 4.6% per annum over the course of the next five years.