The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has seen the affect of the temporary stamp duty holiday coming to an end in March this year. The headline net price balance however did improve in May from -19 to -16.
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has seen the affect of the temporary stamp duty holiday coming to an end in March this year.
In its UK Housing Market Survery for May 2012 it reports the following key points:
- Activity runs out of momentum
- Price balance improves but remains negative
- Outlook becomes increasingly uncertain
The headline net price balance however did improve in May from -19 to -16, i.e. 16% more surveyors saw price falls rather than price rises. When looked at further those that actually reported a price fall, 70% of them foundthis to be within the 0 to -2% range.
Activity was more or less stable in May. But there has been a clear loss of momentum following the expiry of the stamp exemption for first time buyers (for properties costing less than £250k) at the end of March. Indeed, the deadline has had the effect of bringing
forward housing purchases into Q1 at the expense of Q2. Average sales levels (per branch) fell by 2.6% in (the three months to) May to 15.6, while average stocks on surveyors books (per branch) fell by 0.2% to 67.8. This had the mechanical effect of pushing down
the sales to stock ratio – an indicator of market tightness – from 23.6% to 23.1% in May, which is considerably less than the long run average of 33%
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