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Five hunters for each property

The monthly market survey by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has revealed that demand is far exceeding supply across the UK housing market, with estate agents registering five house hunters to every available property - and this imbalance is pushing house prices up...

The NAEA found that the average branch of estate agents had 287 house hunters on its books in October, alongside an average of 57 properties on its books in that same month.

Thus, the demand and lack of supply is causing the gap between asking and selling prices to close -it fell from 10.9 per cent in September to 8.8 per cent in October.

This increase in demand did not translate into an increase in sales - which dropped from nine in September to eight in October.  Even so, it was proved that first time buyers really are back in the market - a significant percentage of these sales were made by them (22 per cent) - more than double the number this time last year.

September sales were also at a slightly higher level than had been expected at the end of the summer holiday, which is traditionally a quiet time for UK property transactions.

Gary Smith, President of the NAEA, said, "There is strong demand for property and more optimism in the housing market than we have seen for months. This is good news for the recovery of the market and for the UK economy in general.

"Many buyers are at the very beginning of the house buying process and this is creating a lack of properties in the short term. It is now up to the Government and the banks to do more to keep the momentum of market recovery going.

"A good place to start would be for the government to extend the Stamp Duty holiday, which mainly affects first time buyers, and is currently scheduled to end in December.

"The danger is that this short-sighted policy could precipitate an unwelcome pause in the housing market at the start of the New Year.

"We can only hope that common sense will prevail and that the Government will raise the lowest level at which Stamp Duty will apply to £175,000 for an indefinite period," he added.

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