RICS forecasts property market recovery

February 18, 2026 by Brendan O'Neill

Property Market

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is forecasting a recovery for the UK property market this year, based on its latest survey of industry professionals.

This body recently published its UK Residential Market Survey for the first month of 2026. What it shows is that surveyors are less negative about the prospects for the housing market than they were over the previous few months. Those surveyors that took part in it provided a minus 15% reading when it comes to enquiries from new buyers. That may still be in negative territory, but it is considerably better than the minus 21% reading for the last month of 2025. The figure in November’s survey was minus 29%.

The survey also shows an improved picture for actual agreed housing sales. The reading here was minus 9%, which represents the best one since the early summer of 2025.

RICS asked surveyors for their short and long-term predictions for the market too. In terms of the former, they gave a sales expectation response of 4%, which is more pessimistic than that of December. When it comes to the longer-term outlook though, this jumps to 35%. This is the best reading since the end of 2024 and shows that real recovery is expected.

RICS chief economist is Simon Rubinsohn. He spoke to Mortgage Solutions:

“There are early signs that market conditions may be improving after a challenging period, although activity levels are still subdued, meaning any recovery is likely to be gradual.”

Those with CeMAP mortgage advisor training will certainly be hoping the long-term forecast is correct.