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Four house-hunters chasing every property

Thursday, 18 June 2009

There were four house-hunters chasing every property for sale during May as potential buyers continued to flood back to the market, |research showed today.

Estate agents had an average of 299 house-hunters registered with them during May, the highest level since September 2007 when the market downturn began, according to the National Associations of Estate Agents (NAEA).

The pick up in interest from potential buyers continued to translate into sales during the month, with estate agents selling an average of 10.4 homes each, the highest level since October 2007 and the fifth consecutive monthly rise.

In a further positive sign, the proportion of homes sold to first-time buyers soared to 43%, nearly double the one in four homes that were sold to this group during the four months to April.

First-time buyers are often |described as being the lifeblood of the property market, as a shortage of people buying homes at the bottom of the housing ladder makes it difficult for other buyers to trade up.

The NAEA welcomed the surge in first-time buyer numbers, saying the figures showed this group was returning to the market in force and suggested that people thought now was the right time to buy, before house prices begin to bounce back.

The figures came as|research carried out for the Building Societies Association showed that 59% of people think now is a good time to buy a property. Around 49% of people also think house prices will increase in the coming 12 months, while 12% think they will stay the same.

Overall, people expect the average cost of a home to edge up by 1.4% in the next year, with only 27% of those questioned predicting further price falls, down from 65% in March. But the pick-up in potential buyers is not being matched by more homes coming on to the market.

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Another vested interest piece of spin by the belfast telegraph .

Look guys, house prices here will be falling for years, you'd best get used to it!

Posted by lowhousepricesaregood | 22.06.09, 12:56 GMT

What is a registered house hunter - somebody signing up to receive an email from an agent when properties come onto the market? That could be a possible vendor who wants to know what the competition would be!

Coincidently, a lot of the current property buyers in Northern Ireland are cash buyers.

Posted by Andy | 20.06.09, 22:35 GMT

It would be something of a miracle if the price of house prices stopped falling in these economic conditions. Unemployment up, mortgage lending down and a reccession that is preventing people spending money even on cars and holidays. You would need to be deluded not to see the truth.

Posted by Merit | 20.06.09, 18:44 GMT

What a load of advertising rubbish from the Bel Tel! There are around 25,000-30,000 houses for sale on well known NI property websites so you'll telling me there are over 100,000 people chasing houses. Please!

Posted by Subby aka Paul | 19.06.09, 15:24 GMT

Bunkem. Just use propertysnake.co.uk, prices are rightly plummeting.

Posted by Davros | 19.06.09, 13:12 GMT

I'm sick to death of reading fairy tales in the BT about the property market bouncing back. The dog on the street knows that things are very tough out there and not likely to improve for some time. These people were probably only nipping into the estate agents to get out of the rain. The world seems a better place now we have alot less estate agents- long may it continue!

Posted by Ronan | 19.06.09, 12:37 GMT

In the case of apartments/flats, judging by the price reductions even in high profile developments, and current glut of unsold units , surely as regards these the converse must be the case, 4 units for every potentail purchaser. With yet more of these coming on stream later this year, it appears many potential purchasers are largely not interested, and contracted purchasers are even apparently in some cases seeking to withdraw from units they contracted into.

Posted by deflated bubble | 19.06.09, 10:05 GMT

You are just right Neill, the HPCers are very thin on the ground in the last few months. I'm glad beause their droning on about 3.5x average salary and all the rest of their nonsense was becoming very tiresome.

They can't deny the flood of positive news and try to pass it off as 'more spin from the BT'. Perhaps they are all out looking for houses.

Posted by baz | 19.06.09, 09:31 GMT

HPC's have got better things to do than comment on rubbish like this.
So with so much interest, how come the housing market is toast, and poised to get worse.
More grabbing at straws, and false use of statistics.
The spring 'bounce' ( a slight blip) is over. Now the rot will set in. Mortgage lending is already down.
Soared to 43%. 43% of what? 43% of the lowest sales ever.

Posted by nik | 19.06.09, 04:47 GMT

This has nothing to do with NI. Average houseprice in the North East of the UK is 106k. Average price in Wales is 120k. The local houseprice will have to come down near those levels. Even if the price was on the high side of 4 times household income the average price would be 128k here.

Posted by merit | 18.06.09, 23:04 GMT

True Neill. The HPC'ers are busy buying houses while the gullible read on.

Posted by B Boy | 18.06.09, 22:03 GMT

Neill clearly wants to pay a higher price for his next house. Would anyone's child like to explain the obvious to him?

Posted by shipbuilder | 18.06.09, 20:57 GMT

Lies, damn lies and statistics, eh?
I assume that all serious buyers register with all relevant agents, not just one. So divide the number of registered buyers at any estate agents with the number of estate agents in an area and that's the true number of putative buyers.

Posted by polythene pam | 18.06.09, 19:56 GMT

Depends on your definition of normal, Neill. My view is that Northern Ireland has had a very abnormal property market for several years.

Posted by neil | 18.06.09, 18:12 GMT

Hmm, in terms of apartments/flats it must be the other way around, at least 4 of them for every potential buyer (most of whom don't want apartments/flats in any case) as gauging by price drops in evidence, even in high profile developments, few appear to want them, with more to come on stream later this year..

Posted by deflated bubble | 18.06.09, 17:21 GMT

house hunters is not whats needed its house buyers
keep talking it up
houses still dear
dont move improve

Posted by upoorbuilders | 18.06.09, 17:09 GMT

Is the NAEA an independent body? No! This "green shoots" story is all spin and waffle. These average figures aren't representative of NI - just ask any NI estate agent. There are over 25,000 properties on the market today according to propertynews.com.

Is the NAEA suggesting that there are 100,000 buyers chasing these NI homes? How ridiculous! Mortgage lending is low, unemployment rising rapidly, retail sales down and a new record for public borrowing. How'd you like them apples Neill?

Posted by paul65 | 18.06.09, 17:01 GMT

My understanding is that this report is based on statistics from the English market which is, and always has been, very different from here. It would be entirely false to suggest that this sort of activity is taking place within the Province.

Posted by Colin | 18.06.09, 16:23 GMT

Surely the clearest indication that the property market is returning to normal is the lack of HPC'ers posting disparaging comments. Even they know the game is up.

Posted by Neill | 18.06.09, 14:38 GMT