Signs of growth for the property market
House sales reached their highest level in more than two and-a-half years as confidence continued to return to the market, surveyors said today.
The news fuelled expectations that house prices will rise in the next year to hit a three-year high, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found.
Surveyors sold an average of around 17 homes in the three months to February, marking the highest volume of sales recorded since June 2010.
Telford estate agent D B Roberts posted its best February sales total since 2008.
Sales director Jo Culley said today: "It is unusual for sales to be so strong this early in the year. The month did start slowly, but sales picked up rapidly around mid-month and we finished on a real high.
"We have had a brilliant start to March which may well be another record breaker."
Surveyors' expectations for house prices in the next 12 months increased to the highest level since they started being monitored in February 2010.
The number of mortgages on the market has increased by around a third since the Government launched a Funding for Lending scheme last August.
Lenders have also been slashing their rates to some of their lowest-ever levels following the introduction of the initiative, which gives lenders access to cheap finance.
RICS said its latest findings showed that the scheme may be 'slowly encouraging would-be buyers to test the market'.
A balance of one per cent more surveyors reported rises in the number of homes coming on to the market, although the number of properties available for sale remains at 'historically low levels', the study said.
Peter Bolton King, RICS global residential director, said: "It's encouraging to see that the housing market now appears to be picking up across most parts of the UK despite ongoing concerns about the health of the economy.
"This may, in part, be down to the growing availability of mortgage finance through schemes such as Funding for Lending.
"However, even with activity running at its best level since the middle of 2010, it is still well down on its pre-crisis norm."
