A Sandbach estate agent has reacted to a survey saying house prices are beginning to fall nationally, as price and sales expectations continue negative trend.

Alannah Taylor, branch manager of Stephenson Browne's Sandbach office, says she feels the housing market is just 'correcting itself'.

" What I feel at the moment is that we are just seeing the market current correct itself, so whilst it is understandable that people may perceive this as a drop, we see it more as the market getting back to pre-pandemic levels/normal, as the prices had risen so dramatically at that point," said Alannah.

Alannah Taylor, manager of Stephenson Browne's Sandbach office

Alannah's comments come after Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) November Residential Market survey revealed buyer demand, agreed sales and new instructions remain negative.

• National house prices begin to fall
• Both price and sales expectations point to these trends continuing near-term
• Rental market prices continue to rise, with increasing demand and falling supply

A RICS spokesperson said: "The results show overall activity continues to weaken across the sales market, with higher interest rates and a difficult macroeconomic outlook both taking their toll on buyer sentiment.

"Meanwhile, rising demand and falling supply send rental prices upwards.

"For the seventh month in a row, buyer demand continued to fall, with the net balance coming in at -38%. Whilst this is less negative than the -53% reported in the previous month, the market remains in a firmly downward trend with indications that this will continue in the near term."

For agreed sales, a national net balance of -35% was reported over this survey period indicating a continued decline in sales activity.

"Again, this is marginally less negative than the reading of -45% posted in October, but this is also the second month in a row that respondents across every UK region reported a decline in agreed sales, demonstrating what is a now a consistently negative picture at the national level."