RICS Residential Market Survey: phenomenal property sales see prices surge

Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, comments on RICS’s publication the April Residential Market Survey, which shows phenomenal property sales seeing a price surge.

Sarah Coles said:

“Property is the new toilet roll. Buyers are clamouring to get their hands on the dwindling number of properties on estate agents’ books. Homes are getting snapped up at a frenetic pace and at ever-higher prices. And surveyors are expecting more of the same this summer.

“They’re reporting a phenomenal month for sales across the country – with average sales per surveyor at their highest for years. However, they’re complaining bitterly about the mismatch between buyers and sellers and the lack of new properties coming to the market. This means on average they have just 40 properties left on their books, and they’re not hanging around. The ratio of sales to stock is back at the levels we last saw in the early 2000s.

“House price rises have continued to accelerate, and in the immediate future we can be reasonably confident this will continue. A combination of the stamp duty holiday, government guarantees for high loan-to-value mortgages, the race for space, and the seasonal surge, should mean a hectic summer and yet more price rises. Of course, the pandemic always has the power to throw a spanner in the works, and new strains could slow the opening up of the economy and suck some of the optimism from the market. However, at the moment, estate agents look set for a bumper summer.

“Buyers need to take enormous care not to get carried away in the house-buying frenzy. It’s easy to feel you need to act fast and bid high to get the home you want, but this doesn’t mean you should over-stretch yourself. The heat in the market won’t last forever. And when this inevitably cyclical market changes, you need to be left feeling you bought the home you wanted for a price you could afford.”

Kindly shared by Hargreaves Lansdown

Main photo courtesy of Pixabay