Other key points:
Rising buyer interest fuels greater sales activity Changes to Home Information Pack (HIP) rules lead to a sharp drop in new instructions Increase in sales to stock ratio for fourth consecutive month suggests prices could stabilise later in the yearThe seasonally adjusted net balance of surveyors reporting falling rather than rising prices posted a marked improvement in April.
At 59.9, the series remains deeply in negative territory but this still represents the best reading since January 2008.
Significantly, the tentative signs of a pick-up in activity have become more broadly based over the past month.
New buyer enquiries have now increased for six months in a row with the positive net balance in April climbing to its best level since August 1999.
There is also more evidence that the higher level of buyer interest is feeding through into actual sales
Newly agreed sales, measured on a net balance basis, rose over the month as did the average sales per surveyor series.
Meanwhile, new instructions to sell property continued to fall and sharply so.
Anecdotal evidence suggest the fall in new vendor instruction this month is due to the change in the rules governing Home Information Packs (HIPs) that were introduced on 5 April.
That said, the stock of unsold property on surveyors books edged up slightly, with the April data showing average stocks per surveyor standing at 69.3 (which is 19% below year ago levels).
Although stocks levels increased slightly, sales levels increased proportionally more so, resulting in a further increase in the sales to stock ratio.
This key guide to the future price trend has now risen for four successive months.
The latest reading of 15.3% is the best since September last year and compares with the low of 12.9% touched in December.
Confidence in both the sales and price outlook improved over the month. In the case of the former, the net balance of surveyors with a more positive view jumped sharply from 19 to 34.
This series has recorded a positive net balance in seven out of the last eight months.
On price expectations, the net balance still remains deeply in negative territory but the reading of –43 is the least worst in seventeen months and considerably better than the -88 net balance registered in January.
From a regional perspective, the net price balance improved across all regions in England and Wales apart from Yorkshire and Humberside and the North.
In the former, the price balance stabilised, whilst in the latter, the price balance deteriorated.
The price balance improved markedly in London but it still remains negative
In Scotland the price balance remained stable, whilst in Northern Ireland, the price balance improved slightly.
