Housing market is continuing to improve as figures hit twice level of last year (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Housing market is continuing to improve as figures hit twice level of last year

10:00am Thursday 17th December 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

A West Yorkshire estate agency has seen house sales rise beyond expectations to double their level this time last year and says the local housing market continues to improve.

This is borne out by the latest findings by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors which says Yorkshire house prices rose for the sixth month in a row in November, Ilkley-based Dacre Son & Hartley reported strong sales across all of its 19 offices.

Last month the firm said sales in the Aire Valley were soaring through its Saltaire, Bingley and Keighley offices and expected business to remain brisk throughout the winter.

Patrick McCutcheon, head of resid-ential sales said: “We are delighted to report strong sales figures, which are just over double what they were for the same period in 2008.”

He believed growing confidence meant fewer sales were falling through compared with 2008.

“The last few months have been much improved – certainly beyond our expectations – and so far, the signs for 2010 look encouraging.

“We have seen pretty much continuous transactional growth since January and these recent sales figures suggest that as long as vendors remain realistic about pricing, sales levels will continue at the present rate – subject to the normal seasonal variances.”

Some sectors of the market could see the shortage of homes due to more people choosing to buy rather than rent.

Mr McCutcheon said demand was expected to increase in the £350,000 to £600,000 price range, but demand from first-time buyers was expected to remain subdued due to mortgage lenders keeping a tight rein on funds and recent changes to borrowing rules.

He said the recovery would be a long term process and the general election could subdue the market for a month before polling day followed by a post-election bounce.

The RICS housing market survey said house prices were still rising in Yorkshire, with more surveyors reporting a higher level of instructions for the sixth consecutive month in November.

Most surveyors believed prices would continue to rise over the next three months and also expected sales to increase, with 19 per cent of surveyors forecasting a rise in sales, compared to six per cent in October.

David Whittaker, RICS Yorkshire housing market spokesman, said: “The green shoots of recovery are there.”