Pre-election boom in houses on market

Yesterday the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) published a report showing the number of homeowners putting their houses up for sale has risen to its highest level for nearly three years.

As a chartered surveyor I have been submitting figures to RICS for its reports for over seven years, so I am always interested to see what the national figures indicate as this month I knew from business at Garside Waddingham that there had definitely been a recent upturn in surveys, sales and householders looking to sell.  

RICS stated that the sudden rush is linked to people’s uncertainty over the political direction of the country and its effect on the property market, but I would suggest otherwise.

Although this may play a part in some people’s decision to sell I believe it is more a case of homeowners looking towards the future.

There has been a shortage in supply due people’s reluctance to sell during the recession, and just as the economic climate improved we had a spell of bad weather which caused many people to hold off putting their house on the market.

I believe this resulted in a backlog of in people wishing to sell, which, together with the media’s positive reports of an upturn in the housing market, has caused the recent surge of house sellers.

Either way, we are enjoying a particularly busy period within both our surveying and estate agency practices and recognise that although properties within the commercial arena may not have taken such a steep increase in sales activity, commercial properties are still being sold and let across the region. 

I will be eager to receive next month’s RICS report to discover if this has been an artificial boost to the market, or if it’s an ongoing trend and the rise is set to continue.      

John Waddingham, partner, Garside Waddingham Chartered Surveyors.