First time buyers increasing
Wed, 28 Oct 2009
Falling house prices and lower interest rates in the UK property market is encouraging first time buyers but at the same time high deposits and strict finance conditions are still having an effect – according to propertywire.com.
New research from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors shows that 13% of new enquiries in September were from first time buyers and 28% of surveyors reported that the number of enquiries from first time buyers had increased over the last three months.
RICS added in new questions in its monthly surveys to get a better idea of the trends in what it believes is a recovering market as the overall trend in demand has now been positive for 11 months in a row.
The new questions also revealed that buy to let investors are now gravitating towards houses rather than flats. For landlords insurance to make sure your property is fully covered, speak with CIA Insurance, the UK’s leading let property insurer.
The North West recorded the highest proportion of first time buyers at 23%, while the lowest proportion was recorded in East Anglia with only 6%.
The results of the survey also suggest that the net balance of surveyors reporting a rise in first time buyer demand was most rapid in the South East and East Anglia at 56 % and 43% respectively.
However, surveyors in Yorkshire and Humberside and the North reported falls in first time buyer demand over the previous three months.
Surveyors were asked for the first time how buy to let demand had changed in relation to both houses and flats.
A net balance of 2% more surveyors reported a rise than a fall in buy to let enquiries and interest was generally stronger for houses than flats.
London bucked the trend by reporting a positive balance of 8% more surveyors reporting higher rather than lower demand for flats compared to a negative balance of 16% for houses.
‘This is arguably a reflection of the different nature of the London rental market and the cost and availability of houses in the capital,’ the report says.
The increased demand from first time buyers is regarded as encouraging but a lot still needs to be done in terms of finance.
‘House price falls and lower interest rates have gone some way to tempting first time buyers back into the market.
However, buyers still need to have greater deposits to access the market with lenders remaining generally cautious,’ said Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist.
‘This is making it hard to translate this interest into hard transactions.
Meanwhile, the firmer tone to the market has also rekindled enquiries from buy to let investors albeit in a more measured way than was visible prior to the onset of the credit crunch,’ he added.
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