UK Residential Market Survey from RICS
19th July 2020
Recovery in activity now underway but longer-term
expectations remain cautious.
• Enquiries, agreed sales and instructions all improve noticeably in June.
• Prices continue to slip, albeit more moderately than last month
• Twelve-month sales expectations still subdued due to the challenging economic backdrop
The June 2020 RICS UK Residential Survey results point to a recovery emerging across the market, with indicators on buyer demand, sales and fresh listings all rallying noticeably following the lockdown related falls beforehand. That said, respondents still appear relatively cautious on the prospect of this improvement being sustained over the longerterm, as twelve-month sales expectations are now marginally negative.
In terms of buyer demand, a headline net balance of +61% of survey participants saw a rise in enquiries over June. This marks a strong rebound compared to readings of -7% and -94% posted in April and May respectively. Furthermore, respondents across
virtually all parts of the UK reported a pick-up in buyer enquiries during June.
At the same time, new instructions being listed onto the sales market also rose firmly over the month, evidenced by a net balance of +42% of contributors noting an increase (significantly stronger than the reading of -22% in May). Nevertheless, despite edging up slightly at the national level in June, the average number of properties on agents' books remains close to an all-time low of just 39 homes.
The survey's gauge of newly agreed sales moved into positive territory for the first time since February, with a net balance of +43% of contributors citing an increase in transactions during June.
Moreover, sales are expected to continue to rise in the coming three months, albeit the nearterm outlook is only modestly positive (net balance +16%).
Further ahead, at the twelve-month horizon, survey participants struck a more wary tone, as projections slipped back into marginally negative territory in the latest returns. Moreover, a common theme coming through in the comments submitted by contributors
this month is that the challenging economic climate is likely to dampen market conditions for some time to come.
Alongside this, house prices continue to come under some downward pressure at the headline level, with a net balance of -15% of respondents seeing some degree of decline over the survey period. While this represents the third successive negative monthly reading for the national house price indicator, the latest figure is a little less downbeat than that posted in May (-32%). When
broken down at the regional level, London and the South East currently exhibit the weakest momentum, returning net balances of -58% and -33% respectively.
Looking ahead, near term expectations remain consistent with a continued fall in prices over the coming three months. Notwithstanding this, sentiment on the outlook for house prices has
turned progressively less negative in each of the last three reports, with June's net balance of -12% up from -43% previously. In terms of the view beyond this, respondents now anticipate a flat to
marginally negative trend in national house price inflation over the next twelve months as a whole.
In the lettings market, tenant demand returned to growth for the first time in three reports (nonseasonally adjusted monthly series), with a net balance of +24% of contributors seeing an increase.
Meanwhile, having fallen significantly in recent months, landlord instructions were broadly steady at the headline level in June. On the back of this, rent expectations turned modestly positive, both in
the near term and for the coming twelve months. As such, survey participants are now pencilling in around 1% rental growth nationally over the year ahead.
Read the full report HERE
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. It is the international body who regulate and train chartered surveyors and other property professionals across many countries.
RICS web site - https://www.rics.org/
