Estate agents' stocks hit record lows, RICS says

The UK property market continued to struggle in February as estate agents’ stocks sank to a record low and buyer enquiries fell for an 11th straight month, a survey showed.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ residential market survey showed 16% more respondents reported fewer new buyers than an increase in enquiries. New instructions and newly agreed sales also drifted lower.

RICS said its survey showed big national disparities with the market active in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Yorkshire and Humberside but weak in London, the South East and East Anglia. Foxtons' the London-focused estate agent, reported house sales in London near all-time lows when it reported plunging profit in February.

New instructions for estate agents fell to register the lowest reading since May 2017. That dip pushed the average number of properties on the books of each estate agent branch to a record low of less than 42.

The balance for prices was flat overall with negative moves in London and the South East offsetting growth in Northern Ireland, Wales, the North West and the East Midlands.

RICS published its survey soon after Theresa May announced plans to stimulate housebuilding by speeding up planning applications and clamping down on housebuilders sitting on land.

Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist, said: “The consultation announced earlier this week on housing delivery put the onus squarely on developers and planning departments to up their game to lift the supply pipeline but the feedback to the latest RICS survey casts some doubt as to whether this will be sufficient to address the challenge.”

RICS asked respondents, made up of estate agents and surveyors, what were the main drivers of demand for newly built homes. Housebuilders such as Persimmon have remained busy even as the rest of the property market has seized up with some critics claiming the companies are subsidised by the government's "help to buy" scheme.

Nationally the main reason given was lack of stock in the second-hand market, followed by help to buy, which lends buyers money towards their deposit on a newly built home. In London help to buy was viewed as more important than a shortage of second-hand stock in stimulating new-build sales.