The ‘for sale’ board hire Agency Express Property Activity Index showed that the volume of properties coming to market was up 13.6% in May compared to April.
In addition, the number of houses sold in May also reached its third highest level since April 2008, up 8.6% on April and 17% year-on-year.
The top areas for house sales in May were the West Midlands, up 25.8%, while Welsh house sales grew by almost a quarter and the South West jumped 17.5%.
Birmingham was the best performing city in the UK, with a 71.4% leap in the number of houses sold in May, followed by Newcastle (41.4%) and Cardiff (36.4%).
The only area that saw a drop in sales in May was the South East, down 6.6%.
Wales also saw the most houses being put up for sale in May, up 27.2% on April, followed by Scotland, up 21.7%, and the North West, up 21.2%.
Stephen Watson, managing director of Agency Express, commented that the Government’s decision to abolish Home Information Packs had encouraged people to put their properties up for sale and added: “The good weather we saw in May also helped to increase sales activity to levels we haven’t seen consistently for over two years. The scale of uplift in activity around the country augurs well for the next few months.”
