House sales across the UK are almost 40% lower than five years ago at the peak of the boom.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says that in May, the average number of completed sales per estate agency branch was 15.6 – down from 25.4 in May 2007.
The RICS survey says that with transactions down and affordable mortgage finance now harder to come by, homes are taking much longer to sell.
During the three months to May, RICS agents sold 23.1% of the homes on their books, a significant fall from the same period in 2007 (40.9%).
House prices continued to fall last month everywhere but in London, says the RICS.
Peter Bolton King, RICS housing spokesperson, said: “It’s no surprise to see such a sizable drop in transactions since the market peak back in 2007. Ongoing economic instability in the UK and overseas has continued to undermine consumer confidence, and the reluctance of many banks to offer affordable mortgage products has created something of a stagnant market.
“In spite of this, a gradual stability is returning to the market and surveyors expect transaction levels to increase over the coming months, even if prices continue to dip across most parts of the country.”
A total of 398 estate agency branches took part in the RICS survey.
Mike Darwin, of M W Darwin & Sons, Northallerton in north Yorkshire, said: “Sales are difficult to complete with mortgages remaining difficult to obtain and buyer confidence remaining low.”
In Farnham, Surrey, Peter Fearn, of Keats Fearn, said: “Delays on the conveyance side and continuing uncertainty on the economic front are playing havoc with the market.”
In Tunbridge Wells, Kent, R. A. Sumner, of Sumner Pridham, said: “Shortage of instructions and low commission rates: ghastly market conditions.”
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Comments
"You too can have letters after your name, join up today."
Just pay for them from the NAEA, need to be able to write your name and when od enough you can the be a Fellow.
Pee Bee,
That must be at least 10 times we have agreed on something, and only once or twice we disagreed on any topic with any real conviction.
I know you love to leap to the defence of some of the poor misguided souls I berate on here from time to time, but that is no reason to stop loving me.
Anyway, it's "Funny Friday", stay happy old chap.
FBA: "Sensationalism in extreme."
You and I don't agree much, do we? Well - you're spot on there, Sir!
The headline says it all - "House sales still 40% below peak in 'ghastly' market"
Forget the 'peak' pish - look at the last two words.
They are taken from the comment of a surveyor who ACTUALLY said "Shortage of instructions and low
commission rates; ghastly market conditions."
Shortage of instructions at low fees - the REAL reasons why for him the market is "ghastly".
NOT A 40% REDUCTION FROM THE HIGHEST EVER SALES PEAK.
Look at the company website. 77 properties - FIFTY SIX of them Sold or SSTC. Oh dear - what a sh!tty market to be in!
The RICS' Report - which they pass off as authoratitive yet state "The RICS Housing Market Survey is a monthly sentiment survey of Chartered Surveyors who operate in the residential sales market." (funnily enough I can pick out at least a dozen of the recent respondents whose so-called "operation" is either to carry out surveys and even Land Managers from the New Homes world, and NOT as a Resi Estate Agent...) - states:
"The May 2012 RICS Housing Market Survey shows the price trend to still be negative, albeit a little less so than in April"
WHAT?? Less negative? Erm... in ANY other housing market 'survey' you care to throw at me, that is reported as a positive, is it not?
What they are basically saying is that "Less surveyors THINK it is sh!t this month than they did last month."
I'll take that as GOOD NEWS, if y'all don't mind... ;o)
You too can have letters after your name, join up today.
Join the new association for Lettings and Sales agency. Ordinance of Lettings Disciplines (OLD) & Fellow of Architects, Realtors, Trades & Services (FARTS).
Join OLD FARTS and show people how good you really are.
Limited spaces, only 50 per town. £1 joining fee.
PBK new monica !! Less letters, more meaning...
He wants to be known as Peter @ Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
PRICS
(Stop sniggering at the back please)
During May, the average number of completed sales per surveyor* was 15.6. This represents almost a 40 percent drop from May 2007’s figure of 25.4
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says that in May, the average number of completed sales per estate agency branch was 15.6 – down from 25.4 in May 2007.
A misquote by Estate Agency Today surely not?
The first quote is the actual RICS survey and second EAT article so it is not even copied and pasted correctly!
The survey actually refers to sales per surveyor not estate agency branches!
What are RICS actually measuring surveys on house sales or actual completions?
I think we need to know!
If they are averaging 15.6 completions per surveyor as their wording the market must be booming! (Not)
Can anybody clear this one up?????!!!!!
EA over pricing is the problem. People don't want to be ripped off.
Fed up with national stats.
We're not a national market, nor regional, nor county. It's town by town and sometimes street by street. It's what happening around you that counts to you and your clients.
We're in London commuter belt and volumes in May 2012 were less than 10% down on May 2007.
Feel for you guys elsewhere and hope the ripples start to reach your shores soon.
Ps any stats on hown many RICS estate agents there are out there now? You can count them on Captain Hook's bad hand around here.
Who cares, all it means is those still making a living out of agency there is plenty of room for growth and that’s why the bigger better agents are expanding, much I am sure to the frustration of EA haters. We are 5 years into this cycle now not seeing any major casualties.
Having just had a quick look at the actual land registry data, it looks like we are selling HALF of what we were selling in the first few months of 2007 so it seems RICS have understated the data somewhat.
But to answer @GB's question, in the first two months of this year (no transaction volume data yet for March) there were a total of 86389 properties sold across England and Wales which was 38% up of the same two months in 2009, up 9.2% on 2010 and 10.6% up on last year.
These sort of statistics are useless to ordinary buyers and sellers - they just give a national 'blanket' figure when we all know that there are great differences between areas.
Better to give County or Post Code figures then they would be useful to everyone?.
So how is this even news? anyone with an eye on land registry transactions will have noted and should have been quoting transaction levels at every valuation they have been on for the past umpteen years. Perhaps professionalism in Agency is something that is new to RICS.
Is it a case of the new boy has to come up with something to justify his employment?
On a positive note it is good to see PBK has stopped using the Uber pompous title we had the other week.
Richard,
It can be sensationalism because this is not the RICS website, it is ESTATE AGENCY 'NEWS'.
A balanced view and comment would be appreciated. You will notice even the plonkers at the BBC always start with 'according to' when they go for a headline based on info fed to them by some body or another, they never ever just state the headline.
Here we have a very bold headline, followed by stats provided by RICS.
If this is just 'copy and paste' journalism it should be described as such. Surely it would be better described as a press release from 'Blah Blah (in this case RICS) claims.... followed by the content.
A lot of non agents read this site and will trust the content as real news rather than the propaganda it actually is.
Joined up thinking required (if you can manage that Richard)
But also there are regional issues involved here.
London has been steaming ahead, the rest of the country lagging behind.
Where I am I would suggest that overall transaction levels are no more than 50% of normal, using the Land Registry HPI stats and probably no more than 33% of peak.
My god, those were the days!
How can this be sensationalist journalism when it is only reporting on what the RICS says. These are all RICS comments so don't blame the journalists. By all means say it's the RICS that is sensationalist - now that would be a turn up for the books!
Well said GB & BT,
A good journalist would add balance by also commenting on figures compared with the trough as well as the peak.
Sensationalism in extreme.
@ Gordon Brown, exactly so, peak is not normal, so why use it as a comparison. These reports attempt to suggest that a return to peak is the target and anything short is substandard.
Not true. Peak is unsustainable and undesirable.
Why the fixation of comparing today agaisnt "the peak". Can we know how today's figures with (say) 2009 (post Credit Crunch), or even last year?
I fear that if all stats are going to have to stand comparison with "the peak" it's going to be a long time, if ever, before we can cheer again.
However, if we can know how we're doing compared to the bottom of the slump after the peak, we might realise that the world is continuing and there is increasing business to be done, and profit for those who know what they are doing.