The UK housing market experienced a relative increase in activity in the first month of 2011, the National Association of Estate Agents reported this morning.
NAEA members reported a rise in demand amongst house hunters and an improvement in the number of offers from sellers.
The number of registered house-hunters reached the highest level in six months, from an average 227 in December to 252 in January.
Housing stock availability grew from an average of 64 per estate agency branch in December to an average of 69 in January.
House sales during January also rose, increasing from an average of four sales per branch to six, the NAEA claimed.
However, the percentage of first-time buyers slipped by 1% to 24%.
Despite the mostly up-beat report, not all NAEA members appeared happy.
In Suffolk, Colin Girling said that January got off to “an extremely slow start” with a slight improvement by the end of the month. He blamed the media, saying it should deal in facts, not sensationalism.
In the home counties, Chris Bolton King said agents were also annoyed by the media, whose mixed reports were confusing the public and making them wary of committing to the market.
In Surrey, James Wyatt said that house sales in the county “are dead in the water”.
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Comments
@Truthsayer
You said: "AoS your argument doesn't stack up. We're down to 50 odd thousand transaction per month and mortgage approval data points to 40 thousand in coming months. Will you still be saying everything is fine if this falls to 20 thousand?"
So, 6 HUNDRED THOUSAND people a year are managing to move at current prices. Weird isn't it? They obviously don't realise they are breaking the rules.
Are you a house price crash refugee?
I have no idea what a gooner is - so am unable to confirm or deny.
I take it from your reaction to my remarks that you don't like to hear the truth.
Never mind eh?
Truthsayer, transcations dropped off a cliff three years ago
TruthSayer: I am not a "HPI goul" as you put it. I have as many reasons - more, in fact - to personally want prices to fall than to rise, or even stay the same. However, this is not about my personal feelings. This is about business. I am in the housing industry, and as such I am employed to protect house prices.
You will no doubt be aware that it is a LEGAL REQUIREMENT that Estate Agents seek the best price on behalf of the sellers of the property? I am not an Agent - but nevertheless that is my purpose.
I saw NO analysis; NO reasonong, in your post - therefore why should you expect to see same from me?
What type of "analysis" are you expecting that covers the whims, needs and aspirations of millions of individuals? That will keep the psychiatrists busy a while - Forth Bridge comes to mind...
You want history? Okay - I'm afraid I just missed out on the period of house price growth 1970-1978 (too busy at school to take much notice...) but I've been in at the deep end every hour of every day since, so I'm pretty much okay from there onwards. Of course I have all the stats to lean back on thanks to the Nationwide, so lets go back to '52 if you want...
DID YOU KNOW, for example, that between 1952 and 1970 there were only FIVE quarter-on-quarter drops on average house prices? And that the TOTAL VALUE of those reductions, per property, was £47? FORTY SEVEN QUID!! More perversely, there were TWO Q-on-Q drops in 2004/2005 - right in the middle of the 'boom'!!
Read into THAT what you want. It's history...
If transactions have , as you suggest, "fallen off a cliff", then they have one hell of a parachute slowing the rate of descent, mate! There must be some occasional updraughts to boot...
Don't you just love thermals?? You can't see them you don't know you're flying into them - but before you know it they shoot you skyward again!
See - aerodynamics is a science. You can pretty much guarantee that a stone will drop, a feather will slowly make its way down eventually, and a hot air balloon will rise. Housing, on the other hand, is NOT a science - and relying on presumption will attach you firmly to the stone, not the balloon. Your hot air is running clay cold.
@PeeBee
Same argument from you and all the other HPI gouls. That is no argument at all. No analysis, no reasoning, just "it won't happen because I say so". Well thanks for the insight buit if you knew any history you would realise that first transaction levels fall off a cliff, quickly followed by prices. Rising interest rates and unemployment will simply speed things up.
TruthSayer: "We're down to 50 odd thousand transaction per month..." Do you want to read that aloud, s...l...o...w...l...y - and then think how stupid it sounds?
IF we were down to, say, FIFTY transactions a month, then there would be the HPC that you and the other harbingers of doom get all moist about.
At present, 49,950 plus people PER MONTH are peeing on your fireowrks...
The number will go up and down for a goodly long time to come - but it will never fall to your hopeful depths. Sorry. In many ways it would suit me down to the ground if it did - but it won't.
I've told you the situation, albeit in my local area. I know this is the case for other areas, too.
Would you knock house prices down, even if they're still selling? Granted there are less transactions, but many agents are still turning over a profit - the ones that aren't have gone a while ago. Most importantly, service and value is not compromised for the client.
Transactions in almost every industry are down.
Oh look, BMW's are now starting at £15k on the road! Never. Business adapt to perform to their market, well good businesses do.
I agree with James Wyatt. House sales are dead in the water. Must we persist in talking up the market even though every man and his dog can see prices and transactions falling and IR's about to rise. It just makes EA's look ridiculous.
AoS your argument doesn't stack up. We're down to 50 odd thousand transaction per month and mortgage approval data points to 40 thousand in coming months. Will you still be saying everything is fine if this falls to 20 thousand?
Mike- Did you see Spurs last night, excellent! See nothing to do with EA and nor are you, just shut up! Please tell me you are a gooner so I can really dislike you!
Mike - I don't think its fair to categorise all estate agents together. I agree, there are some bad ones which are becoming a dying breed, but there are many excellent agents too.
These good agents are still selling houses at their current value. Yes, it is taking a little longer and volumes are not as high as the massive peak of 2007. However while houses continue to sell, the price does not need to come down.
"In Suffolk, Colin Girling said that January got off to “an extremely slow start” with a slight improvement by the end of the month. He blamed the media, saying it should deal in facts, not sensationalism."
The words 'pot' and 'kettle' leap to mind. Let us not call estate agency a job where lying is endemic. But let us recognise that estate agents are all guilty of endless, non-stop, structural, in-built SPIN.
Let's stick with the message eh:
Flying off the shelves
An early viewing is advised
Likely to appeal to investors and those looking to stamp their own style on ... (be quick!)
We don't expect this to stay on the market long
We'll have an open day ... that always makes the buyers jumpy
etc. etc. etc.
A whole industry based on spin and bull - and we have a complaint about the media being sensationalist.
What would they say if the media dealt in facts?
How about ...
The UK property market is seriously overvalued compared to wages - even at the lowest BOE base rate in 300 years
The vast majority of First Time Buyers are priced out
Banks do not have the money to lend and need to protect their capital positions or face bankruptcy
.... how would those facts go down - endless repeated in the property press?