Agreed housing sales surge in August
Claims that the UK housing market continues to strengthen were lent added weight as agreed house sales surged in August.
While traditionally a quiet month for housing activity, research from estate agent Your Move revealed that there were 143,100 transactions during August 2006, compared with 129,200 the previous year, an increase of 11 per cent.
Your Move also revealed that there were 62 per cent more registered new buyers this year than last, climbing to 1.6 million.
Experts said that activity in the housing market is typically subdued during August as children off school and summer holidays mean prospective home buyers have less time to house hunt.
However, house viewing levels increased by 38 per cent on the corresponding period of last year.
David Newnes, managing director of Your Move, claimed that the figures suggest homebuyers have not been deterred by the Bank of England monetary policy committee's decision to raise interest rates by 0.25 per cent in August.
"The rate rise in early August caught many commentators on the hop and some were concerned about its potential impact on housing market confidence," he said.
Meanwhile, the monthly house price index from Nationwide building society for August claimed that there was likely to be sustained growth in house prices throughout autumn.
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