Sales and lettings were moving in different directions in the RICS UK Residential Market Survey for July 2023. The report, discussed by LandlordZONE in August, described weaker buyer activity while tenant demand continued to rise. Reading the measures separately is essential to understanding that contrast.
RICS’ own account linked the sales slowdown with a tighter lending environment. Its survey gathered observations from property professionals, rather than counting every purchase in the country. The results provided a picture of the direction and breadth of change reported by contributors.
In the quarterly lettings series, tenant demand showed a net balance of plus 54%. RICS described this as the strongest quarterly increase since the beginning of 2022. A net balance subtracts the share reporting a decrease from the share reporting an increase. It does not mean that the number of tenants rose by 54%.
The supply picture was weaker. Contributors continued to report a decline in landlord instructions. Together, stronger demand and fewer instructions informed respondents’ expectations of further rent increases. An expectation in a survey is not the same as a verified subsequent rent movement.
The contrast was especially relevant because households do not experience the housing market through a single national indicator. Reduced enthusiasm for buying can coexist with competition for rented homes. That does not establish the circumstances of every buyer or tenant, but it explains why a sales headline may say little about the difficulty of securing a tenancy.
LandlordZONE also cited a separate HomeLet rent figure. Different providers can use different datasets and definitions, so combining such figures without identifying their source would be misleading. This retrospective focuses on the RICS survey’s directional evidence rather than presenting a mixture of measures as one index.
The July 2023 results remain an archived account of professional observations. They are not a current rent assessment or a prediction about a particular property. The primary RICS survey and its accompanying release support the distinction between a net balance, an observed market trend and a forecast of what might happen next.