The latest housing report from NAEA Propertymark suggests that the housing market showed resilience in June, as buyer demand remains high.
The number of house hunters registered per estate agent branch fell slightly in June, from 307 to 305 - but, despite this, the number of prospective buyers remains high for the year. Year-on-year, housing demand is almost aligned, with just a one per cent difference from June 2018 when there was an average of 308 house hunters per branch.
The number of properties available per bran dropped in June, from 41 in May to 37, and year-on-year the supply is down marginally, with 39 per branch in June 2018.
Sales per branch remained the same both on last year's number and the previous month, at nine - but sales to first time buyers fell slightly, from 26% in May to 23% in June. This is a decrease of 6% on the previous year, which saw 29% of sales to first time buyers in June 2018.
Mark Hayward, Chief Executive, NAEA Propertymark said:
“Although we’ve seen a slight drop in supply and demand, the housing market is still stronger than expected, showing signs of resilience amid political uncertainty. The warmer months can often result in the market quietening down, but we’re not yet experiencing this just yet as demand remains high for the year.
“We’ll need to see if this trend continues over the next few months before we can conclusively say that confidence in the market has returned.”
