Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) showed optimism on the property market - with expectation on increasing house prices, new enquiries and sales.

More homebuyers express their interests in the property market as the housing industry is slightly picking up with optimism shown by the housing specialists. 63% of surveyors conveyed an increase in new buyers’ enquiries during July - where these new enquiries increased for the 9^th month in a row in July. The interest and enquiries have certainly translated into sales - with 15 properties sold in the last three months averagely compared to 13 properties from April to June. Furthermore, 29% Chartered surveyors even expect housing sales to increase in the following months.

While the interest and sales of home buyers are increasing significantly, the level of properties available is still “very low”. Even though there is an increase in average properties listed on the books (from 57 in June to 60 in July), the figure is still 30% less than the number recorded last year. RICS survey even demonstrated that only 2% of the surveyors see a rise than fall in the properties stocks on estate agents’ books.

With higher demand and low supply, the house prices are bound to increase. This remarkable phenomenon corresponds with the expectation from the Chartered Surveyors, where 8% more of them anticipated an increase in house prices than a fall in the next 3 months - which is the highest increase since April 2007. At the same time, only 8% of them expected a fall in the house prices as revealed in the survey - which was recorded as the lowest figure in 2 years. The property market is overtly viewed as more positive by experts and the public - while the housing market is slowly picking up, retail sales have also made an impact on the economy with 3.6% increase in July year-on-year. This reflected the boost and returning of consumers’ confidence on the economy.