House sales up 38% in February

9 March 2011 | By Natalie Thomas

It ends three consecutive months of declining sold boards being erected and represents the highest level of sales since November 2010.

Sales were still down 26.5% on last February but 14.0% up on February 2009.

Agency Express says these figures provide encouragement for the months ahead as the number of house sales was 25.1% higher than the monthly average over the last 50 months, although they are still 59% lower than the market peak in May 2007.

The optimism seen in January for the number of properties being put up for sale continued into February with another monthly increase of 27.7%.

Following the pattern of previous years, January and February have been months when there have been significant monthly increases in houses being put on the market. February had the highest level seen since October 2010.

Compared to last February the numbers were still down 10.4% but a massive 47.7% up on February 2009. These figures provide encouragement for the months ahead, although it is pertinent to note that the number of houses put up for sale in February was 48% down on the market peak in May 2007 and 6.4% lower that the monthly average over the last 50 months.

Stephen Watson, managing director of Agency Express, says: “Activity in February has built on the improving positions we saw in January. Better weather conditions certainly helped the situation and we could be seeing people moving and securing a fixed rate mortgage now before interest rates start to go up as expected in the next few months.

“One of the more telling figures from our Index is that the level of sales achieved in February was significantly higher than the average monthly level we have seen over the 50 months that the index has been running, suggesting that we are seeing a recovery albeit a slow one.”

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