insideKENT Magazine Issue 49 - April 2016 | Page 149

PROPERTY

Are South East buy-to-let investors ahead of the
game in beating stamp duty rises?
The latest survey from the Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors (RICS) suggests that the
rush on buy-to-let properties is already fading in
the South East with time almost up to complete
sales before April.
The increase in new buyer enquiries was fairly
modest with only 11% more respondents seeing
an increase in buyer demand rather than a fall
according to the RICS UK Residential Market
Survey, February 2016. This compares with a
balance of +15% across the UK as a whole.
Newly agreed sales have neither risen nor fallen
in February with a net balance of 0%. In January
29% of surveyors saw a rise in sales rather than
a fall.
However, South East respondents remain
optimistic as 37% more expect sales to rise over
the next three months rather than fall. This bucks
the national trend where expectations appear to
be that the growth in sal W2v