Property sales rising again » Housing » 24dash.com

The number of properties changing hands rose for the second month in a row during October as sellers began to price their homes more realistically, figures showed today.

The average estate agent sold seven properties during the month, up from six in September and a record low of five in August, according to the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA).

The group said some of the increase was likely to have been driven by buyers adjusting their asking prices to more realistic levels.

The findings are in line with research released by Rightmove earlier this week which showed that sellers had slashed their asking prices by 2.9% during the four weeks to November 8 in a bid to find a buyer before Christmas.

Chris Brown, president of the NAEA, said: "Sellers are beginning to face up to the reality that their houses are not worth as much now as they were 12 months ago. They are ripping up last year's price tags and beginning to come to terms with the new economic reality.

"That is a difficult thing to do - but the silver lining is that the market is now more transparent for buyers.

"Prices are becoming realistic, and we hope that this provides the boost needed to encourage those families who so desperately want to buy houses to get onto the market."

The proportion of first-time buyers in the market also continued to increase during October, with the number of people buying their first home accounting for 9.6% of all sales.

But other figures were less encouraging, with the number of househunters registered with estate agents dropping to 196, from an average of 211 in September, a 7% fall.

At the same time, the number of unsold homes estate agents had on their books rose to 98 from 91 as transaction levels remained low.

The NAEA is calling on the Government to introduce a stamp duty holiday for all properties in the Pre-Budget Report.

It said around 54% of estate agents did not have confidence in the Government's current policies and wanted more to be done.

The NAEA's figures on the number of properties sold are based on agreed sales rather than completed ones.