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The UK wealth agents reported the wider growth of properties that have come to the market since pandemia, according to one study, suggesting that lower interest rates are increasing sales activity.
The royal institution of Surveyors Chartered said on Thursday his index of new sales guidelines increased to 25 in January, the nine consecutive positive reading and the highest level since September 2020.
The index traces the difference between the proportion of agents reporting an increase in new residential lists and those reporting a decrease.
Agents reported a shrinking number of properties that came to the market for most of the three years in 2023 after increasing interest rates achieved the affordability of mortgages and demand from buyers. However, the Bank of England has reduced lending costs three times since August 2024 and is expected to lower interest rates this year, helping a recovery in mortgage approval and wider assets market.
Shaun Brannen, director of the Brannen & Partners Property Agency, said it was “a very strong start for the New Year.. Instructions are at very high levels”.
The separate data published earlier this month by the Halifax lender showed that house prices rose more than expected for a new high record in January. The Bank of England reported last month that mortgage approval increased in December and increased 28 percent year a year.
While the number of guidelines coming to the market “has been encouraging”, John Frost, managing director at the Frost Partnership Assets Agency, “Buyers are very careful”.
The tracking of the RICS index, the agreed sales slowed in January, in a net balance of three compared to seven in December.
With the growth of lists and weakened sales, the survey highlighted a “visible” increase in asset agents inventories, with an average of 45 lists per branch, from 41 a year ago.
The stock levels are also significantly higher than the low record of 34 seen in September 2022, which marked the narrowest supply since RICS began tracking the data in 1978.
The view of home sales remained positive, with a 10 percent net balance of asset agents awaiting a sales increase in the next three months and a 30 percent net waiting for an increase in the following year.
Tuarent Parsons, the head of RICS market analytics, said the latest poll showed that the buyer’s request “lost little momentum” in January, but respondents continued to “anticipate a slightly close positive perspective” on sales activity.
