Home buyer inquiries increase overall for first time this year
Its report for the month of June found that a net balance of 3% of property professionals saw new buyer inquiries rise rather than fall.
This was the first time since December 2024 that buyer demand has moved out of negative territory, the report said.
It is also a noticeable improvement compared with May, when a balance of 22% of professionals reported a fall in new buyer inquiries, the report said.
Despite the positive trend, surveyors expect sales momentum to remain subdued in the near-term, with a broadly flat outlook for sales volumes over the next 12 months.
New instructions to sell have seen a slight decline, with a net balance of 3% of professionals seeing a rise in June, down from 7% in May.
While this signals a slowdown in the flow of new listings, 16% of professionals reported an increase in market appraisals compared to the same period last year, indicating that supply levels remain relatively healthy.
House prices continued to follow a flat or slightly negative trend in June, with a net balance of 7% of professionals seeing price falls rather than increases.
The South East, East Anglia and London have seen a more pronounced decline in prices, while Northern Ireland, the North West, Scotland, and the East Midlands experienced clear growth, Rics said.
Looking ahead, professionals expect the slightly negative trend at the UK-wide level to continue in the short-term. But when asked about the 12-month outlook, 24% of survey participants expect to see house price increases.
Stamp duty changes from April caused some sales to be bunched up earlier in the year as buyers rushed to beat the deadline. Stamp duty applies in England and Northern Ireland.
In the lettings market, tenant demand remained largely flat, with a net balance of 2% of professionals seeing a fall rather than an increase.
Landlord instructions continued to decline, with a net balance of 24% of professionals seeing a fall.
Tarrant Parsons, Rics head of market research and analysis, said: 'The UK residential market appears to be entering a more settled phase, with demand showing signs of stabilising following a period of volatility.
'The earlier distortion caused by transactions being brought forward ahead of the stamp duty changes now appears to have largely dissipated, allowing underlying trends to re-emerge.
'Encouragingly, near-term sales expectations have begun to edge higher, pointing to a modest shift in sentiment. That said, confidence in the market remains somewhat delicate, with economic uncertainty at both the domestic and global level still seen as a potential headwind.'
Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank said: 'Demand is recovering after the March stamp duty deadline meant transactions were pulled forward into the first quarter of the year.
'However, as buyers return, they have a lot of stock to choose from, which is putting downwards pressure on prices. Rate cut expectations have grown over the last six weeks due to weak UK economic data, which should support demand over the second half of the year and produce modest single-digit price growth in 2025. A re-run of last year's game of 'guess the tax rise' ahead of the Budget is the biggest risk for sentiment.'
Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown said: 'The number of renters looking for a home has remained stable, but landlords continue to pack up and leave the business, so there's still real competition for properties, rents continue to rise and they're expected to keep climbing.
'This is the last thing tenants want to hear, because their finances are already so stretched. The HL (Hargreaves Lansdown) savings and resilience barometer shows on average they only have enough savings to cover two-and-a-half months of essentials – falling short of the amount they need to withstand any nasty surprises.
'Meanwhile, those with a mortgage have enough for more than six months on average, so they have somewhere to turn when times are tough.'
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BBC News
21 minutes ago
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ARU Peterborough celebrates first graduates from new university
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Revealed: the full, devastating impact of Labour's VAT raid on private schools
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
The Wolseley's global takeover is thriving. Investors and Keir Starmer should take note
There was consternation among London restaurant -goers when their favourite venue, owned by their favourite restaurateur, was acquired three years ago by a Thai-based group. It was feared The Wolseley, adored by many, including Lucian Freud (whose regular corner table was covered with a black cloth and a single candle following his death) and AA Gill, would be no more. It would not be the same without Jeremy King, its co-founder, greeting regulars and attending to every last detail. But fears The Wolseley would lose its cachet have proved groundless. The restaurant and its siblings, including The Delaunay, Colbert and Brasserie Zedel, plus a new Wolseley in the City, are thriving. The Wolseley remains as it was, known far beyond London for its 'Parisian cafe meets Viennese dining room' menu, spectacular but intimate room, and warm ambience. The numbers speak for themselves. Last year, the original Wolseley sold 21,803 schnitzels, 7,542 pancakes, 45,750 afternoon teas and 29,837 oysters. As a group, the restaurants managed 18,358 champagne bottles and 91,306 glasses, 99,013 schnitzels, 15,755 pancakes and 49,104 afternoon teas. Wolseley parent company, Minor International, turned in thumping annual results, including record net profits. Now Minor is taking the business international, and going further still, by opening The Wolseley Hotels. Proof that no single person is bigger than the brand, and evidence that what they created is capable of developing and expanding into a money-making machine Minor is so-called because it was founded by entrepreneur Bill Heinecke when he was underage. American-born Heinecke started in business in Bangkok at the age of just 14, in 1963, while he was still in high school. He persuaded the editor of the Bangkok World newspaper to let him write a column on go-karting, securing advertising space alongside it. This initiative was so successful that he took over the paper's advertising manager position. When Heinecke left school at 17, he decided he wanted to set up on his own. He borrowed $1,200 from a backstreet moneylender to register his first two companies: Inter-Asian Enterprise, which provided office cleaning services, and Inter-Asian Publicity, an advertising company. The holding company was Minor Holdings – for the first year, his mother had to sign the paychecks on his behalf. Over nearly six decades, he grew Minor into a major powerhouse, encompassing hospitality (Minor Hotels), food (Minor Food) and lifestyle retail. Pivotal was the 2018 acquisition of Spain's NH Hotel Group, tripling Minor's hotel portfolio and propelling it to leading world hospitality player. Today, Minor owns 560 properties with 85,000 rooms across 57 countries. They will be joined by four new brands – The Wolseley Hotels, Colbert Collection, Minor Reserve Collection and iStay Hotels – to help Minor achieve its aim of reaching 850 hotels and 4,000 restaurants by the end of 2027. It's all part of Heinecke's bold vision. When asked which was his best decade, he is quick to answer: 'My best decade has yet to come.' Ian Di Tullio, chief commercial officer of Minor Hotels, said the Wolseley Hotels will 'take multiple cues' from the restaurant in Piccadilly. 'Like the restaurant, the hotel will be a place where formality melts away, replaced by friendly familiarity and glamour without pretension. Rituality and attentiveness are at the heart of the guest experience, where every guest will be treated to our effortless balance of class and etiquette, from their welcome by The Wolseley Hotel's door person to the stay rituals delivered by a team passionate about the craft of hospitality.' Minor is looking to open Wolseley Hotels in New York, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai and other key centres. London is also earmarked as 'a fantastic location and a natural fit'. Di Tullio said: 'We will be very particular and deliberate about where we open The Wolseley Hotels properties, growing its footprint slowly with partners who share our vision for the brand experience. This will be a carefully curated rollout, with each new location thoughtfully chosen to be a perfect match for the brand's character and values.' He added: 'Brands are a brilliant way to endorse existing customers and find new ones.' He makes the point, though, that it does not apply to all. 'The Wolseley is an iconic brand with soul and character, and an individual creativity – there are very few of them, which is why we want to start a new hotel portfolio with our existing brands.' Nevertheless, he has a product – Britain has a product – that is internationally transferable, provided standards are maintained. 'There is pure theatre, pleasurable impact for anyone entering The Wolseley and we want to celebrate and to share that special sense of luxury with a new global audience. We will do that respectfully and carefully and with passion.' So, The Wolseley brand sustains and is expanding. Rather than the world taking over a uniquely British label, that British label is taking over the world. It shows what Britain is capable of, with an injection of self-belief and commercial strength and savvy. What began as a car showroom was, through imagination and flair, transformed into an exceptional restaurant, then widened. Now it's to be raised to another level, across the globe, in hotels. Credit to Minor and Heinecke for having the idea and for going where others have not. You realise that a Paris or Brussels restaurant could not make the leap, they just don't have that same internationally-admired British style. We could make so much more out of this as a country, as an economy. It does make you wonder what other loved and homegrown brands could achieve with the application of similar faith and a fair wind. Investors, brand proprietors and Keir Starmer and his teams devoted to exporting British soft power, please note.
