PROPERTY sales in the six months to September 2013 rose to their highest level since the start of housing downturn in 2007, according to new research by Lloyds Bank.

The numbers of sales in England and Wales in the six months to September 2013 were 21% higher than in the same six months in 2012, at 396,756.

This is also the highest year on year increase in a decade for the six months to September period.

However, property sales were still 41% below the market peak of 673,699 in the six months to September in 2006.

Regionally, there was remarkable consistency in property sales growth with a 23% rise in activity in both the North West and East Midlands between March and September 2012 and the same period in 2013.

The lowest rise was 19% in the North East. The South East saw sales exceed 100,000 during the six months from March to September for the first time since 2007.

The number of towns in the survey recording a rise in sales in the six months to September 2013 increased to 98% of those surveyed, this compares with 26% in the same period a year earlier.

Fifty-seven per cent of the towns that saw a rise in home sales were in the south against 43% in the north.

In four regions – North, West Midlands, Wales and London – 100% of towns in the survey recorded an increase in home sales; whilst 93% (the lowest) recorded a rise in Yorkshire and the Humber.