Hometrack has reported that February saw a distinct improvement in housing market conditions.
Over February the number of buyers registering with agents grew by 18%.
As others have also noted, activity levels were boosted by first time buyers looking to beat the stamp duty holiday.
On a regional level the greatest increase in the number of buyers was reported in the south east (+28%) and south west (+22%).
The stock of housing for sale grew 10% over the month. But with investors and first time buyers not having property to sell, the growth in demand over the month out-paced the increase in supply across nearly all regions.
However, over the last six months there has been only a small (1.5%) increase in the supply of housing for sale which is acting as a support to pricing.
Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack, said: “This is the strongest level of demand seen since the start of the downturn and higher than the 15% increase in potential buyers recorded in February 2009.””