RICS Housing Market Survey - April 2012

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have released the April 2012 survey detailing how surveyors from each region perceived the property market in the past month.

There are ten regions included in the report; North, Yorkshire and Humberside, North West, East Midlands, West Midlands, East Anglia, South East, South West, Wales and London.

Out of these regions, the North topped the newly agreed sales and new vendor instructions charts which are detailed in the report.

The net balance is opinion based, it is the proportion of surveyors who responded to the survey reporting a rise in house prices, minus the amount reporting a fall. This means that if the percentage reporting a rise is 30%, and the percentage reporting a fall is 5%, the net balance would work out to be 25%.

According to April's survey, the headline net balance in April "slipped from -11 to -19 i.e. 19% more surveyors recorded price falls rather than rises. That said, it is still noteworthy that 63% of respondents reported no change in prices and of the ones that did see a fall in prices, 81% did so in the 0-2% range".

The report also details that "Anecdotal evidence from surveyors suggests the recent announcement of the economy re-entering recession has been the main reason for the less upbeat outlook."