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Market picking up Say Westcountry Commercial

The UK’s property market is benefiting from its normal spring pick up, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said. Its latest monthly survey of 245 members who work as commercial agents suggests that prices are still going up. In April, 17% more surveyors said prices were rising rather than falling, up from 9% in March. Sales have picked up very slightly as well, Rics reported. The average numbers of businesses sold per surveyor rose over the three months to the end of this April.

A rise in the number of businesses being put up for sale again outstripped the increase in enquiries from potential new buyers.

But overall, Rics said its members had become much more optimistic about both sales and prices. “The start of spring has seen renewed optimism with the good weather improving sentiment and surveyors expecting an increase in both sales and prices,” “The commercial business market often sees an increase in new instructions in the early part of the year with sales boosted in the spring and this year has been no exception,” he added. There is regional variation however, the feedback from Rics contrasts with other recent reports on the state of the market.

Although prices have risen in the past year for good businesses, the upward trend has been easing off in recent months, according to lenders such as the Natwest and Santander. sales have been distinctly slower across the general UK market.

Although slightly higher than in the first three months of 2009, sales were still lower than in the first quarter of any year since statistics were first kept in their present form by HM Revenue & Customs in 1977 but this is due only to “election fever”.

According to Rics, whether prices are rising or falling depends very much on where you are and here in the Westcountry we are part of the increase. Rising fastest is London and the South East, Westcountry and the Midlands. Prices in the North of England are still showing a decrease whilst their market generally settles out.

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