Buyer bubble bursts for first time in over a year say experts

According to research from the Royal institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICs) there has been a drop of 22% of enquiries across the UK, with Scotland and East Anglia the only parts of the country to have seen any level of growth.

Experts believe the drop in demand could be due to buyer uncertainty surrounding the looming Brexit referendum, as well as many buy-to-let investors shying away from purchasing, thanks to the recent hike in stamp duty.

However, this drop in demand doesn’t appear to be having much of an impact on property prices. 61% of RICS surveyors believe that property values will continue to creep upwards over the coming year, growing by anything from 3% and 5.5% over the next five years.

In turn, this increase in purchase prices is expected to have an impact on the rental market as well, with 18% of surveyors expecting to see rental rates to increase as well, with an increase of 3.4% estimated over the coming year.