The latest RICS UK Residential Property Survey, out today, shows demand lagging in the private rental sector.

There was only marginal growth reported by surveyors responding to the study. 

On the other hand landlord instructions, which is to say landlords making property available for rent, continued to reduce. 

So despite demand recording broadly flat activity, further reductions in availability continues to increase the gap between supply and demand. 

Unsurprisingly, a net balance of +23% surveyors believe that rents will continue to rise over the next three months as a result of this imbalance.

In the sales market, the new buyer enquiries indicator returned a net balance of zero, which means that interest in home buying neither increased nor decreased. 

Agreed sales were up by a net balance of +3%, which is very marginal in terms of growth.

The future outlook for sales looks somewhat stronger, with the three-month look ahead for sales giving back a +10% result on balance. Indeed, the further you look forward, the more positive things get with a +30% net balance recorded for twelve months from now.

House prices continue to rise across the country, with +22% net balance responses indicating rises over the month. Northern Ireland and the North West of England seeing the strongest momentum at present. On the flipside, price growth appears more modest across Yorkshire & the Humber and the South East for the time being. Respondents firmly believe that house prices will continue to rise across the country over the next twelve months (+55%).

 
RICS Head of Market Analytics, Tarrant Parsons, says: “The latest survey feedback indicates that growth in buyer demand lost a bit of momentum through the early part of the year, with this flatter picture likely linked to the turbulence seen across money markets in the first half of January. Nevertheless, moving forward, respondents continue to envisage a slightly positive near-term outlook for sales activity. This should be further supported by the unwinding of some of the pressures around mortgage interest rates over the past couple of weeks.”