Home sales at highest point for 18 months
ESTATE agents sold more houses in April than any other month since October 2007, according to the latest estate agent data.
The average estate agent sold ten properties in April, up from eight in March and a low point of five in August 2008, the figures from the National Association of Real Estate Agents show.
However, the same data shows the average number of house hunters registered with estate agents dipped slightly from 268 in March to 265 in April, while the number of houses on the market increased to 76 last month compared to 67 in March.
The average selling price across all house types in April was 6.2 per cent lower then the actual asking price.
“There has been a resurgence of interest, reflecting both an increased confidence in the future of the market and a belief that house prices are bottoming out,” said Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents.
“We are a long way from being back to normal, let alone the boom times, but the market is getting slowly back on its feet,” added Nicholas Leeming, director of real estate website propertyfinder.com.
The findings come as a series of surveys indicate that the housing market is starting to recover. Rightmove, the property website, says the average asking price of a property increased by 2.4 per cent, during the four weeks to 9 May to stand at £227,441. And the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said inquiries from potential buyers rose at their fastest pace for almost a decade in April.