Home sales see fastest rise for 16 months, says Rics

The report found 28% more chartered surveyors reported an increase in agreed sales in September, which is the fastest growth since the same month in 2013.

Cheaper and more available credit has helped prop up demand for homes and despite tougher checks on people applying for mortgages introduced by the Bank of England past year, mortgage lending continues to increase.

As demand overstretches supply, house prices continue to rise, with the RICS recording rises in all United Kingdom regions for the second month in a row in September.

The Doncaster-based business – which has more than 100 stores in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands – said sales growth slowed slightly in the final six months as it came up against strong comparatives from a year earlier. “Against this backdrop, we expect prices to move higher over the coming months”.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors last month doubled its forecast for house price gains this year to 6 per cent. Mortgage lenders Halifax and Nationwide have said house prices rose by almost 9 per cent and 4 per cent respectively in the 12 months to September.

In the lettings market demand was also high, with Rics members predicting that over the next 12 months, rents would rise in London by 2.7%.

British house prices rose more slowly last month as the number of deals grew, though the market remained hampered by a shortage of properties for sale, a body representing property valuers said yesterday.

Sofa chain DFS Furniture has hailed a record set of results as Britain’s buoyant housing market and growing consumer confidence boosted sales.

Edinburgh had suffered from a sharp drop in activity in the market’s top end after Scotland’s replacement for stamp duty, the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) began in April.

Rics chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said: “Activity is now picking up, which is encouraging, but unless the stock being sold is replenished there is a limit to how sustainable this modest improvement in market turnover will prove to be”.