According to the latest Agency Express Property Activity index, the high number of bank holidays had a slight impact on the property market with monthly house sales down 3.6% on March’s figure.
The index also showed that there was a marginal drop of 0.5% in the number of new ‘for sale’ listings.
Despite this, monthly sales are still up 1.7% on April 2010 and the number of new for sale instructions is 5.1% better than April 2010.
Stephen Watson, managing director at Agency Express, said: “The slowdown in activity is likely to have been affected by the Easter holidays, bank holidays and Royal Wedding being so close together that people have taken the opportunity to go away on holiday or simply put their plans on hold, but it’s encouraging to note that activity levels are still higher than they were in both April 2009 and 2010.
“With interest rates remaining low for the at least the short term and the UK avoiding a double-dip recession we can expect the housing market to pick up again in May as further confidence returns.”
