Agents report increased home sales

Hopes that the housing market might be turning the corner will have been raised by a new report from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), out today.

A survey of members indicates that more homes were sold last month than any month since October 2007.

The credit crunch and general downturn in the real economy has caused loan approvals to slump by over 50 per cent and house prices to drop 15 per cent.

However, there have recently been signs of recovery, with the Council of Mortgage Lenders signalling that approvals were beginning to rise once more.

The NAEA also said that the typical agent sold ten properties in April - twice as much as the low point marked in August 2008.

In March, the average stood at eight properties per agent.

NAEA chief executive Peter Bolton King said: ’Six months ago people were talking about how British people’s attitude to owning property had changed in the recession.

’The NAEA always said that this was nonsense, and that demand for property remained strong, but confidence in the market had gone. These figures show that this confidence is returning.’ADNFCR-2318-ID-19174185-ADNFCR