Nationally, the number of houses sold in February rocketed by 136.6% - more than double the sales achieved in January, and were the highest level of sales achieved for almost two years – since March 2008.
Three regions topped the UK’s ‘hot spots’ by reporting their highest month for house sales since mid to late 2007 (the year the market peaked) with the North East since August 2007, London since October 2007 and the North West since November 2007.
Every region except Central England saw substantial month on month increases in house sales with the North West (152.4%), East Anglia (125.6%), London (123.5%), the South West (122.6%) and the South East (120.8%) all seeing sales activity more than double from January.
Without a doubt, the bad weather seen in the first couple of weeks of the year and the rush to avoid Stamp Duty at the end of December certainly dampened January’s house sales. But the astounding increases in February sales shows reason for optimism that the property market is now climbing out of recovery at a faster pace than expected.
Nottingham experienced the greatest increase at 206.3% - with monthly house sales trebling compared to January. Other notable rises, where house sales at least doubled, were seen in Manchester (168.4%), Oxford (147.3%), Cambridge (140.2%), Milton Keynes (134.2%), Colchester (128.1%), Glasgow (111.1%), Coventry (110.3%), Norwich (109.8%), Newcastle (107.6%) and Carlisle (103.3%).
Stephen Watson, Managing Director, Agency Express, said:
“After a pretty slow start to the year it appears that the British public is not prepared to sit around and wait any longer. Whilst we expected February to be a better month for house sales than January, the levels we have seen have exceeded our expectations.
"It appears that the growing economic optimism has permeated the housing market and people are now making the decision to move. We are now seeing house sales nearly match those we last saw two years ago and the strength of activity bodes well for the coming months”
Further encouragement that the housing market is regaining its buoyancy can be found in the number of ‘For Sale’ boards that were erected in February. Across the UK there was a 91.5% increase in the number of boards going up compared to January and compared to February last year, there was an increase of 64.9%.
