Housing activity down in August, says NAEA
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Activity in the housing market fell in August but the National Association of Estate Agents says that housing stock remains level.
In its monthly activity report the NAEA shows that the number of house-hunters registered per branch decreased on average from 292 in July to 250 in August.
The number of sales agreed per branch decreased from eight in July to seven in August.
Average number of properties available for sale per branch increased slightly from to 68 in July to 69 in August
And the percentage of first-time buyers decreased from 26% to 21%.
The NAEA says that a fall in housing activity is typical for the time of the year as many suspend plans to buy or sell property and concentrate on their summer holidays - hence the number of people registering to look for property dropped off dramatically month on month.
It says a more telling statistic is a year on year comparison, in which last month compares favourably to August 2009.
Likewise, housing stock has reached a similar level to the same time last year and remained broadly level between July and August.
The NAEA says this could suggest that the lack of supply of property which was prevalent in the early months of the year may now have balance out.
And it says on the plus side, the number of sales made on average by each branch declined only slightly between July and August and the percentage of sales made to first-time buyers, while falling, remained reasonably healthy. September will be the key month it says to gauge the current strength of the market.”
Michael Jones, president of the NAEA, says: “Year on year, it does not appear that there has been a drop off in activity.
“But the next couple of months will be telling. The market appears relatively flat at the moment which we expect during the holiday month of August.
“We would expect some indication during September and October as to which way it is likely to go, before we get the traditional pre-Christmas slow-down.”
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