Legal Experts Say Wave Of Good News Will Be Welcomed Across The Board

By Rob Dixon

A growing body of evidence which indicates the property market in the UK has kicked back into gear is excellent news which will be welcomed by both sellers and buyers alike, according to specialist conveyancing experts.

New figures from the 'Office For National Statistics' found that house prices in the twelve months leading up to June rose by 3.1 per cent, while a study by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors also claimed buyers are returning to the market in their biggest numbers for four years.

According to the RICS Residential Market Survey, the net balance of 53 per cent more chartered surveyors reporting increases in demand and buyer activity was also found to have increase in areas such as the North East and the West Midlands which have suffered significantly in recent times.

RICS said some of the improvement could be linked to finance initiatives and further new figures revealed there have been 10,000 reservations for new build homes made via the government’s Help to Buy equity loan scheme.

Reacting to all of the new research, Eve Lake, a specialist conveyancer at Irwin Mitchell, said: “The signs are clearer than ever that improvements in conditions in the property market are now well underway.

“Through our own work we identified as early as the start of the year that many people were becoming increasingly confident that the time was indeed right for them to reassess their position on the property ladder.

“The latest trends reported by RICS and ONS seem to have shown that this is undoubtedly the case and one of the key aspects is that this growing confidence tends to impact on all aspects of the market – whether it is people looking to sell a property or those looking to purchase their first or latest home.

“The market is alive and kicking and, with mortgage availability also improving, now is the time for people to get out there and see what deals there are to be struck.”

Eve added: “It is welcome to see 10,000 reservations made via Help to Buy, which provides a great opportunity for people across the board. However, it will be interesting to see whether this number increases further as confidence continues to grow in the coming months.

“We would also urge the Government to continue to market and push this initiative far and wide, as we have seen similar initiatives fail to have much impact in the past purely due to a lack of awareness.”

Read more about Irwin Mitchell's expertise in relation to Buying and Selling Property