More potential buyers are enquiring about homes, but this is "not translating" into a jump in sales.
Potential homeowners are showing increasing amounts of interest but a number of factors are keeping down sales, according to the content editor of FindaProperty.com.
Michael O'Flynn revealed that his website has seen an increase of 23 percent in terms of visitors compared with last year. Additionally, he quoted figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) which showed a "significant rise in buyer enquires". But he added: "This is not translating into a significant rise in sales.
"This is partly due to the lending situation and partly due to the fact that buyers are not going to commit unless they can get a discount."
However, he said that agents his company had spoken to reported that properties which were "competitively priced... can shift quite quickly". In general though, the property market had slowed considerably, with the average time on the market for a house up by 45 percent year-on-year.
There has been little good news for the market of late. Despite the Bank of England recording a slight rise in mortgage approvals last month, the overall December figure was the second lowest on record. Additionally, the latest statistics from the Land Registry revealed that house prices in England and Wales dropped by 13.5 percent last year.
