The housing market benefitted from an early arriving spring as new buyers took to looking for a new home.  According to the latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) new buyer inquiries were up in March and 9 per cent more estate agents reported increases in demand for property purchases.  There were also fewer estate agents reporting a decline in house prices.

Credit for the positive report for the housing market was given to the unusually warm weather in March as well as the stamp duty holiday that ended on March 24.  With the stamp duty holiday due to end in the last part of March first time buyers were anxious to complete a purchase to take advantage of the savings.  First time buyers could save 1 per cent of the purchase price for a property up to the level of £250,000. 

Despite the end of the stamp duty holiday there remained an optimistic outlook for the housing market.  Of those surveyed for the RICS study 20 per cent of the estate agents are expecting sales to increase over the next three months.

RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said, “Demand saw a slight boost in March as many first-time buyers looked to beat the stamp duty holiday deadline. There has been a gentle increase in activity across the market in the early part of the year but it remains to be seen whether this can continue, given the changes in the Budget and ongoing problems affecting the economy.

“London continues to outperform the rest of the UK in terms of prices but, interestingly, the North West did see an increase in activity in March.”