–RICS: Net 22% Surveyors Saw UK House Prices Up May vs 19% Apr
–RICS: May Sales To Stocks Ratio 27 Vs Apr’s 28
–RICS: May Net Price Balance Rises To Highest Since Jan 2010
–RICS Says Abolition Of HIPs Results In Sharp Rise in New Instructions

LONDON (MNI) – Rises in UK house prices continued to become more
widespread in May, according to the latest RICS house market survey.

The net price balance rose to +22, the highest level since January,
up from +17 in April and +10 In March and showed a larger number of
surveyors witnessing an increase rather than a decrease in house prices
over the last three months.

This latest report suggests that the recovery in prices has some
momentum and surveyors reported rising prices across most regions
of the country, RICS added.

But buyer interest increased only slightly with 10% of chartered
surveyors reporting a rise in new buyer enquiries, up from 9% in April.

The new government’s decision to abolish Home Information Packs
(HIPs) led to sharply more supply to the market, RICS said, as sellers
took advantage of this decision which is aimed at making selling one’s
house less bureaucratic. This pushed new vendor instructions higher, up
to +21 from +11 in April.

The surveyors’ outlook on sales turned more optimistic but price
expectations were moderate, according to RICS. The sales expectations
net balance rose to +31 from +27 in April. The price expectations net
balance, on the other hand, fell slightly back to +5 from +7 previously.

The average stock of property on surveyors’ books remained at 61.6
per surveyor, the same as previous month.

The sales to stock ratio, a key indicator of market slack,
decreased to +27 from +28 as the average number of completed sales fell
by nearly 4.8%, RICS said.

Commenting, RICS spokesperson, Ian Perry said: “Surveyors are
generally confident that sales will continue to pick up over the summer
months. The increase in supply as a result of the abolition of HIPs
is helping to support this optimism despite continuing concerns about
mortgage finance. A higher level of instructions should meanwhile also
lead to a flatter trend in house prices in the latter part of the
year.”

–London newsroom 4420 7 862 7492; email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com

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