Today’s report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors shows a rise in buyer enquiries, a rise in sales agreed, more optimism among surveyors about house prices, and a fall in stock levels.

I had a chat with our statisticians this morning, and our own numbers echo this:

•    In April, enquiries to estate agents were up 6.4 per cent over the month

•    In May, the number of properties for sale listed on FindaProperty.com fell by five per cent. Stock levels have been falling since February and are down 13 per cent since then.

•    Asking sales prices are up one per cent month-on-month.  This is the largest monthly percentage increase seen since before Jan-08.  May is the second successive month that we have recorded a rise in asking prices.

I’d hesitate to call this an out and out  recovery, but the lines on the graphs are definitely beginning to move in the right direction.

If you’re a buyer sitting on the sidelines take note: the window of opportunity is beginning to close.

Congratulations to Emma Rushin, winner of the Walkers Crisps “Do Us A Flavour” competition to come up with a brand new flavour for the nation’s favourite potato snack. 

Emma’s winning creation is called Builders Breakfast which she describes as a “mouth-watering combination” of bacon, buttered toast, eggs and tomato sauce. 

(In a crisp??? Hmmm.  I’ll think I’ll have to take her word for it…)

But it seems that our Emma’s had a secret ingredient in helping her concoction become the new crisps on the block: she’s had the hefty backing of none other than the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). 

That’s around 12,000 builders who have been behind (ahem) the flavour from the start and have been voting in their droves for Emma to win.

Meanwhile the FMB itself has shown support by featuring branded packets of Builders Breakfast at various exhibitions such as the National Homebuilding & Renovating Show.

So it was happy endings all round when Builders Breakfast was proclaimed the competition winner.

The builders now have a handy portable version of their favourite brekkie and Emma will receive a share of the profits from sales of her crisps – which she hopes to put towards purchasing her first home.

I’m thinking a new-build property is the only real choice here…

Interesting interview with Robin Bew of the Economist Intelligence Unit on cantosTV.

Bew sees some signs of improvement and reckons we may be close to the bottom, a sentiment that echoes a lot of the recent commentary on the housing market.

Oh, but hang on (cough) - I’m feeling a little feverish. Could that be swine flu? And if so, will it return us all to the Middle Ages? Click play to find out …

Here’s a top offer from a top hotel group.

Principal Hayley Hotels have launched an “Open to Offers” competition where the (very, VERY) lucky winner will have their mortgage or rent paid for a year.

Even better, entering is a breeze - all you have to do is fill in your name, email address and postcode on the “Open to Offers” page on their website.

They’ve said there’s no catch.  I’ve looked at the T&Cs and I can’t find a catch.  I don’t think there is a catch.  So go, sign up now, and good luck to one and all.

(Thanks to Anna at Halpern Cowan for letting us know about this competition.)

The April edition of the FindaProperty.com Rental Index has hit the virtual shelves, with the headline:

“Two-Tier Rental Market Emerges: Houses Begin Recovery Whilst Flats Continue To Suffer”

Click here to read more headlines from the April Rental Index or click here to download the full Rental Index pdf. ( 1.7MB approx)

Alternatively if you prefer a more soundbite-friendly experience, see (and hear!) Andrew Smith - our head of Research - emerge from the jungle and talk about the latest index and what it means for YOU the renter and YOU the lettings agent:

Here’s a handy visual representation of figures recently published by Moneyextra.com about mortgage availability.

It shows that in the first quarter of 2009 people with a 25 per cent deposit had access to the largest number of mortgage products: 797.

In Q1 2008 there were still plenty of deals at 90 per cent LTV (401) but this had plummeted to a mere 67 by Q1 2009.

It will be interesting to see if the Budget announcement on mortgage backed securitisation produces a shift in loan-to-value ratios – high deposits are currently a big obstacle for many buyers.

However, not everyone believes this is the key to a market recovery – David Lawrenson over at Letting Focus recently argued that many people overestimate the impact of mortgage access on the future direction of house prices.

Why? Because, in his own words:

“Over 40 per cent of people have no mortgage so don’t give a stuff about mortgage rates; and if they are not buying for themselves they will be giving their lucky offspring at least some of the money for a deposit and for the hefty mortgage fees which are now the norm.”

That’s a fair point, and well made. But let’s hope LTV levels do improve so that all those people who can’t make a withdrawal from the Bank of Mum & Dad get a chance to buy a place of their own.

Great story on Sky News about a motel manager in New Zealand who’s banned an entire town from staying in his holiday complex of studio apartments and villas.

The town in question is Wainuiomata, population circa 17,000 - none of whom are now welcome at the Supreme Motor Lodge in Palmerston North, NZ.

The reason for this all-out ban?  Well, it seems the town’s sports teams – regular visitors until recently - are somewhat lacking in manners, leave rubbish strewn around and have scant regard for fellow residents.

When their last stay resulted in all night music and rudeness towards staff, manager Malcolm Glen, who goes by the nickname Basil Fawlty, deemed it the final straw and issued his blanket ban.

Even the MP for Wainuiomata is barred: when he phoned to test the ruling, using the old “don’t you know who I am” trick, he was promptly informed by Mr Glen that it mattered not a jot, particularly as he was a Scotsman and therefore didn’t have a vote anyway.

Fair play to the man, I say. And could this be a canny wee marketing campaign, too?  It certainly enticed me to sneak a peek at the motel’s website, and sure enough, it states on the homepage:

“Just to add some extra character to our offering, we have Malcolm (better known as Basil Fawlty) at the helm.”

Sadly, there’s no mention of a Sybil.  Boo.

“The fully outfitted, meticulously detailed, two bedroom, Boeing 727 fuselage suite” at Hotel Costa Verde, Costa Rica.

Just… wow.

(via Inhabitat)

Sometimes you’re drawn into a world you know little about and come back both amazed and enlightened.

It’s happened to me twice today already. The first came about by following the @talkirish Twitter feed.

To explain: I have an Irish girlfriend I’d like to impress with my knowledge of her native tongue. But thus far my Irish vocab only includes such useful words as ‘poc’ (goat) and ‘ceapaire’ (sandwich). So if I’m ever starving in Sligo I can at least ask for a goat sandwich.

Today’s Irish word came through on the Twitter wire.

“Hey Mike,” I say to Winging It’s Hibernian Editor, “today’s Irish word is ‘Bó′.”

“That’ll be ‘Cow’,” he says.

Next thing I know I’m knee deep in Irish myths on th’internets reading about the Cattle Raid Of Cooley, which as far I can tell is all about mass slaughter through bull envy.

The second voyage of discovery happened just now as I was researching chickens (bear with me) …

As the credit crunch bites even harder more people are starting to grow their own veg, make their own stuff (Kirstie Allsop throws a pot and uptake in pottery classes quadruples*) and even keep their own chickens.

To this end, via notcot.org I came across the rather lovely and enthusiastic www.backyardchickens.com, which proudly presents itself as the: “#1 destination for the information you need to raise, keep, and appreciate chickens”.

It’s fairly USA-centric, but does indeed contain pretty much everything you (n)ever wanted to know about chicken keeping.

There’s a guide to breeds, which takes chicken appreciation to a new, intimate level. The ‘Blue Laced Red Wyandotte’ is apparently “a bird of curves”.  Hmmm. Not sure I needed to know that.

A bunch of Chicken sayings: “Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.” (Frank Lloyd Wright.)

And (relating to the previous quotation) there’s a great gallery of chicken coops, some of which would indeed shame Notre Dame. Ok, maybe that’s a slight eggsageration (ahem) but some of these chickens have seriously nice cribs…

The Kreitz Family’s “Poulet Chalet”

"ChickenHaus"

The (slightly odd) GopherBoy's Coop

And finally … the one I saw on notcot.org that dragged me into this odd - but strangely comforting - world of chicken keeping, the wonderfully absurd:

Maurice, The Car Chicken Coop

The last one is from England, naturally. No-one does eggcentricity (ouch) like the English.

For a more modern take on the chicken coop, see ‘Chicken Coop For The Soul‘.

*Note: I just made up this statistic, but it’s probably true.

Interesting Q&A with MPC member Kate Barker over at the Spectator on why the housing market and the economy hit the skids.

Barker, who did a review of housing supply for the government, makes some pretty strong statements, among them that the target for housebuilding may now be defunct due to demographic changes and that the MPC shouldn’t have been set up to focus so narrowly on inflation.

She also predicts that house prices will pick up as lenders become more liberal about how much they will lend:

“The big slide down to 75-80 per cent [loan to value requirement] may be overdone. So I would expect the mortgage market to move. I expect house prices to move up again.”

The full text is at The Spectator.

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