Residential Property Sales Hit Three-Year High

Residential property transactions in the UK reached their highest level in three years, as would be buyers begin to take advantage of the continuing record low interest rates and the increased availability of residential mortgage loans, according to a survey of estate agents.

The monthly market survey from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) found that the increased availability of cheaper residential property mortgages and home loans has been boosted by the Bank of England’s (BoE) Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) and this in turn has led to a pickup in residential property transactions.

Surveyors reported that many agents have sold an average of 17.4 residential properties to new first time buyers in February – up from the previous average of just 16.8 in February 2013, but property transactions remain significantly below the unprecedented levels reached in the early-mid 2000s, at the height of the last UK property boom.