Bleak market survey by listings website contrasts with upbeat Rightmove

A new housing market survey paints a bleaker picture than that from Rightmove earlier this week - and instead speaks of “negative sentiment”, “market pessimism” and inevitably “Brexit uncertainty” all dogging sales.

The April market snapshot by the property platform Home says negative sentiment in a growing number of regions has halted any spring bounce.

It says a wait-and-see attitude amongst vendors and buyers ahead of any eventual Brexit solution has translated into both falling supply and falling demand. 

“Thus far these factors have had little net effect on the established pricing trends but properties are spending much longer on the market” says Home’s April report.

The Typical Time on Market for unsold property in England and Wales is now 93 days it says - that’s 15 days longer than in April last year. 

It says the largest increases in marketing times are in regions where prices are stagnant or falling - London, the East, the South East and the South West - but it warns that large increases in marketing times are now also evident in the formerly booming North West and East Midlands.

And it says that despite a 0.2 per cent rise in prices across all of England and Wales on average in the past month, the annual house price picture is of a small 0.3 per cent fall over the last 12 months.

London’s annualised losses have notched back again from 3.2 per cent to 3.1 per cent although the average price today remains no less than 6.9 per cent lower than the peak set in May 2016 . 

Overall, supply of property for sale entering the UK market is down by eight per cent: the only supply increase was in the West Midlands while all other regions showed no change or reductions.

London’s supply of homes on sale is 25 per cent lower than a year ago.