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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