THE South East housing market should see a slightly stronger end to the year with transaction levels expected to pick up and price falls slowing, says the latest RICS UK housing market survey.
Helped by the prospect of greater mortgage availability after recent Government initiatives, 32 per cent more chartered surveyors predicted transactions to increase in the final three months of the year.
This cautious optimism was reflected in surveyors' price predictions with three per cent more respondents expecting prices to fall over the coming three months. While still in negative territory, this is the most positive reading since the time of the expiry of March's stamp duty holiday.
Turning to house prices, the South East housing market continued to see price falls, albeit more slowly than in previous months. During September, four per cent more surveyors reported a decrease rather than increase.
Meanwhile, demand from potential buyers remained stable in the region with five per cent more surveyors seeing increases rather than decreases in new buyer enquiries. Interest from would be buyers has not seen any significant growth in the South East since early 2010.
The number of homes in the region coming on to the market during September remained fairly flat, as one per cent more respondents reported supply had risen. A persisting theme of the South East recently seems to be that transactions go through where vendors are realistic in their price expectations.