Search regulated estate agents at www.naea.co.uk. UK property market report for October 2011.
We saw last months statistics to have increased steadily so comparing it to Octobers addition there has been yet some further changes to the figures.
So to begin with looking at the average number of house hunters registered per branch has fractionally differed but has pretty much stayed the same.
As has the next category with the average number of houses for sale per branch which remained at 72 per branch.
Moving onto the average number of sales per branch, again has remained the same matching six other previous months this year so far.
Lastly, looking at the final set of statistics which is the percentage of first time buyers - although it has been steady throughout the year. For the first time this year it saw a drastic drop from previous months from 22% of all sales to first time buyers down to 16%. So first time buyers still seem to be struggling to get onto the property ladder despite the fact that we're told that mortgage approvals from lenders has actually increased over the year! There are many reasons behind the collated results shown in these statistics. This could be people who are re-mortgaging and this is where somebody is in a property and they're actually just want to re-mortgage it to get more money available and that is possibly covering up some of these figures. Although more money is being lent, it doesn't seem to be filtering through in great amounts to the sales and especially to the first time buyer.
Something that the government have recently announced and implemented - in the housing review which has just been published said that first time buyers who buy a new property, not a second hand home but a brand new property will be able to borrow more money and that is because there is an element of guarantee that has been put in there by the government and the builders to help. So overall, that's great not only for the purchaser, and the building industry but also the economy. But when discussing such schemes with the government to implement this fantastic opportunity for the whole of the market as it clearly helps buyers of new homes but it doesn't help the rest of the market which is so vitally important to the economy. This scheme is something that we will continue to push to get the government to include further into the market place.
