Confidence 'growing' among homebuyers as sales rise 52%

Confidence among buyers is improving after a winter lull caused by the cold weather and the end of the temporary stamp duty concession at the end of December, according to Scott Brown, estate agency partner at Warners.

The Edinburgh property solicitor said it sold 94 properties worth some 15 million between 1 January and 5 March, a 52 per cent increase on the same period last year. There was also a sharp rise in the number of properties being put on the market, according to Warners. In the past two months the firm has seen 128 new homes put up for sale, compared with 72 in the same period in 2009.

Brown claimed that confidence among the capital's home buyers was gradually improving. "We are seeing more people viewing properties and putting in notices of interest. I think the start of the year has been a catalyst for many people to take action in order to buy their next home, rather than waiting for the market conditions to improve."

However the increased activity reported by Warners is set against late 2008 and early 2009, when lending was the lowest on record. Mortgage lending has also been flat in the early months of this year, with low activity in January blamed on the end of the stamp duty concession on Hogmanay – after which the threshold returned to 125,000 from its temporary 175,000 level – and on the colder than average weather. But the British Bankers' Association this week revealed that approvals for house purchases crept back up to just 35,276 in February, more than 10,000 below the 26-month high in December.

Experts believe lending will take several months to return to the levels of late last year, when activity was brought forward to beat the return of the stamp duty to its normal level in January.

Brown conceded that despite the signs of improvement the market would remain subdued for some time. He said: "The market is still significantly below its peak figures from 2007 and although we are now out of recession, there is still some way to go before we see a return to the levels we experienced during the property boom a few years ago."

And while Brown said the 1 per cent stamp duty threshold increase to 250,000 announced in this week's Budget should encourage first-time buyers, he called for more assistance targeted at would-be buyers without access to financial support.

"If the Chancellor had provided additional funding for those buyers who do not get any help from the Bank of Mum and Dad – and do not have a large deposit in place for their first house purchase – it would have helped to stimulate the market further," he said.

"Nevertheless the decision to scrap Stamp Duty for first time buyers is still a positive move to have made."

Brown added: "The Chancellor should be commended for trying to stimulate more activity in the UK's property market."