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Surveyors Still in Short Supply as Housing Demand Runs High

The housing market has been recovering from the recession for a few years now. Having shown promising signs of growth, people in the property industry could be forgiven for thinking the future had a positive outlook. However, it seems that success in the market has led to another problem. In a pendulum move, the situation has swung from surveyors not having enough business to having too much.

 

Recovering housing market outgrowing surveyor numbers

No one is sure exactly how many surveyors were operating in the UK before the recession hit in 2008. What is certain is that the failing housing market saw many chartered surveyors forced out of business. There just weren’t the number of buyers on the market to support everyone. Yet while the number of surveyors fell in response to dwindling demand, it seems that it has not risen again to meet the current needs of the market.

Surveyors in the busiest areas of the country for property are now in a position where they are having to turn people away. They simply don’t t have the resources to be able to handle every inquiry that comes their way. The UK’s roughly 9,000 surveyors have been struggling to deal with the increased need for their services since around September 2013, when the market began to pick up again.

As the problem was a lack of qualified practitioners, it has not been an easy situation to rectify. In many cases there has been a drive to acquire new talent, something which is now beginning to see newly qualified surveyors emerging into the market, which will come as a relief to the two thirds of UK surveyors still having to turn down new business. In 2013 the average time it took to book a surveyor rose from three days to seven, with some firms of surveyors saying it could take up to a month before they would be able to assist.

This delay in securing the services of a charter surveyor is affecting the ability of buyers to get mortgages. Experts believe that the delay may even mean that some buyers are missing out on the best mortgage rates. This affects not only buyers, but also mortgage brokers and the banks themselves.

 

Is the recession entirely to blame?

While rising demand is believed by many to be the problem, in 2013 the Royal Chartered Institute of Surveyors released a statement blaming other obstacles stacked against surveyors. A large number of unsubstantiated negligence claims against their members forced insurance premiums up, and surveyors fees were driven down by vendors to the point where in many cases it was no longer affordable, let alone profitable, to visit a site and provide a survey or valuation.

 

Chartered surveyors in the Midlands

With offices and surveyors located all across the Midlands, Allcott Associates are well equipped to meet the demand. For a high quality and professionally carried out survey or valuation, at a fair and affordable price, contact us today.

 

Sources:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2347498/Surveyor-shortage-threatening-derail-house-sales.html

Or contact us for more information: 
info@allcottassociates.co.uk | 0333 200 7198

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