Follow Us on Google
House prices are likely to continue falling for another six months in the UK and for the whole of 2019 in London and the south-east, according to an industry survey.
Separate official data shows that rents are also falling, with tenants typically paying £757 a month, down from £772 a year ago, continuing a pattern of declines that began after the Brexit vote in 2016.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said that its March poll of surveyors found a subdued picture across the UK, with sales weak and an eighth successive month of falling inquiries from buyers.
The average time it takes to sell a property remains unchanged at 19 weeks, the joint longest period since the RICS started recording the data in 2017. It added that it takes longest to sell a home in the south-east of England, at 21.5 weeks on average.
The moribund market is deterring potential sellers from putting their homes on the market. The RICS said: “The ongoing decline in new instructions being listed for sale has intensified of late.”
The surveyors’ body does not record house prices, but instead gives a net positive or negative balance about where surveyors reckon prices are heading. “The survey’s headline price net balance came in at -24 per cent, from -27 per cent previously,” said the RICS.
It added that the indicators are “pointing to a modest fall in house prices at the national level over the next couple of quarters … London and the south-east are the only areas where contributors expect prices to continue falling over the year ahead”.
