Summer property market dip assessed

Posted: 03 Sep 2009 10:25:10 GMT

The expected summer property market dip was not as bad as had been feared, according to the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA).

Its comments came as the group revealed that the average number of house hunters registered with estate agents dropped from 292 in July to 238 in August.

Meanwhile, sales agreed per branch dropped from an average of 8.6 to 7.6 during the same period.

Additionally, the NAEA suggested that the number of properties available for sale increased from 59 to 64 between July and August, while the first-time buyer percentage grew to 36 per cent.

Despite the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors recently indicating that the gap between asking and selling prices was reducing, the estate agent body said that it had inflated to an 11 per cent difference over the last two months.

The first-time buyer trend was described by the NAEA as one of the "particularly positive market indicators".


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