Smile returns to estate agents’ faces

Published 11th May 2010

Estate agents reported a rise in house prices and increased demand and sales in April, despite predictions of a pre-election slowdown.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) also reported that the balance of surveyors reporting a rise in prices rose from 9 per cent in the three months to March, to 17 per cent in the quarter to the end of April.

The balance reporting a rise in buyers increased from 1 to 8 per cent — the highest reading since December 2009 — while the percentage of surveyors reporting an increase in transactions turned positive for the first time this year, from -8 to 12 per cent.

A RICS spokesman said: “For much of 2010, the housing market has been under the shadow of the general election, with the gap between supply and demand growing wider as potential housebuyers [stood] on the sidelines awaiting the outcome.

“However, the start of spring has seen renewed optimism with the good weather improving sentiment.”

London and the South East were the strongest growth regions but the South West, East Midlands and Scotland also recorded firm increases.

• Winkworth, the AIM-listed estate agency chain, reported a total of 2,900 sales last year. Its long-term average is 4,500 sales a year.

Source: ' Times '

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