Residential transactions resilient with 9.2% annual rise: HMRC

The number of non-adjusted residential transactions was 13.3% higher than in October 2016.

Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and former RICS residential chairman, said: "On the high street, these figures are much more relevant than the boom and bust of house price rises and falls.

"They bear out what we’ve seen in other recent reports that the market is proving much more resilient than we might have expected. However, the government could do much more to promote transactional activity which would benefit the WHOLE economy.

"We are looking to the Budget to promote more supply to support additional transactions, not just push up demand and prices as some previous policy decisions have done."

Stephen Wasserman, Managing Director of West One Loans, commented: “The uptick in property transactions demonstrates the underlying stability of the sector, and is a positive message to the market ahead of Wednesday’s Budget, which is expected to be largely housing focussed.

"It will take some time for the market to fully recover from the upheaval of stamp duty hikes and economic uncertainty caused by Brexit negotiations, but if Hammond scraps stamp duty for first-time buyers, as it’s rumoured he may do so, we could see the market grow at a faster rate.”