NAEA: housing market “still stronger than expected”

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has reported that the number of house hunters registered per estate agent branch fell slightly in June, from 307 to 305.

Despite this, the number of prospective buyers remains high for the year.

Year-on-year, housing demand is almost aligned, with just a 1% difference from June 2018 when there was an average of 308 house hunters per branch.

Meanwhile, the number of properties available per member branch dropped in June, from 41 in May to 37.

Year-on-year the supply of housing is down marginally, with 39 properties available to buy in June 2018.

The number of sales agreed per member branch remained at nine in June, the same level for the second month running.

Year-on-year, the number of property transactions stayed the same, with an average of nine sales agreed per branch in June 2018.

The number of sales made to first-time buyers in June decreased, falling from 26% in May, to 23% in June
Year-on-year, this is a decrease of six percentage points from June 2018 when it stood at 29%.

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.”

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