There is some debate on the UK housing market about how much of the current upturn is due to a general lift in the market as it continues to emerge from the recession and how much is down to the usual seasonal pattern which sees the market pick-up each spring. 

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has suggested the latter in its release of the latest figures from its regular surveys of its members, mostly estate agents. 

The survey says that in April, 17% more estate agents said prices were rising rather than falling, which is up from 9% in March.  

The average number of homes sold per estate agent also rose to 17.4 over the three months to the end of April.  

However, the rise in the number of homes being made available for sale again outstripped the increase in enquiries from new buyers, which would suggest there will downward pressure on prices in the near future.  

This is in keeping with the findings from other market surveys which have suggested that while prices have risen over the past year the upward trend has been easing off more recently. 

There are also large regional distinctions to the market at the moment, with prices rising quickly in London and the south but falling in Humberside, Northern Ireland, Wales and Yorkshire. 

Spring generally sees a boost to the UK housing market as sellers put their homes on the market hoping to sell them over the summer and be settled into the new one by Christmas. This trend has been less noticeable in the past two years because of the general state of the market. 

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Rics survey is not the detailed figures produced, although they are certainly useful, but the general feel of optimism it elicited from the estate agent members. This is definitely a good sign. 

Sellers in areas where house prices are still falling and those trapped in negative equity may not appreciate this rosy outlook for the housing market. A large part of the regional variations will be based on the equivalent variations in outlook for the economy more generally, and unemployment figures in particular. 

Above all this there is one certainty. If the ‘spring bounce’ is becoming more prominent again it means that the UK housing market is returning to some semblance of normality after three years of turmoil.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 9:03 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.