June 2012 Residential Observer Highlights

• In spite of the weak economy, there are further encouraging indicators from the national housing market although price growth remains frustratingly in negative territory; at a regional level, only parts of southern England are seeing price growth

• The aggregate temperature of this month’s thermometer (as measured against a basket of selected indicators) has risen by 9.5 degrees, which suggests the nation’s residential property markets are slowly improving

• The main increases in temperature at regional level were in East Anglia, which rose by 21.75 degrees, and the South West, up by 13 degrees. In both cases, the increase was largely due to improvement in new buyer enquiries and a return to price growth

Robert Bartlett, Chesterton Humberts’ CEO, comments: “Overall the residential sales market remains turbulent. Positive market movement highlighted in last month’s CHROME continues to strengthen within the core London markets but elsewhere the housing market is fragile and trading volumes remain very low. Any improvement remains dependent on the availability of mortgage funding and the current woes of the Euro Zone will undoubtedly further restrict the Banks appetite to lend.

“What does appear more encouraging is the increasing number of new applicants being registered in the regional markets but this is unlikely to translate into higher prices as there is still much unsold stock available.”

“On a slightly damper note, the poor spring and summer weather has had an effect on the traditional selling period through the early Summer, making viewings more difficult and in some cases convincing some potential vendors not to market this year as they feel their home would not be presented at its best. This may have a knock-on effect on the post-Olympic autumn market. ”