In general terms since mid 2007 the buying and selling of houses has very much reduced. Around 2006 and 2007 the number of houses exchanging hands each month was approx 110,000 but then dropped quite quickly towards the end of 2007. By mid 2008 the number had halved. If we only look back over the last three years we could perhaps say that the market has settled at approx 55,000 transactions a month. If you would like some exact numbers, the Bank of England state that there were 46,967 mortgages (not remortgages) taken out on new houses in Feb 2011 and over the previous 12 months there were an average of 47,275 each month. Not all house sales require a mortgage so the actual number of houses sold is a bit higher. The Land Registry state that 54,812 houses exchanged hands in December 2011 and the average over the previous four months was 56,257 sales per month.

Another interesting figure is the number of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) registered each month. This has averaged approx 123,000 per month over the last 12 months (approx 140,000 in March 2011). This divides into two groups, EPCs for owners who are about to sell a property and EPCs for Landlords who are letting. It would be interesting to know what the split is, perhaps 50:50? If it is an equal split then this would indicate that at present there are approx 70,000 new properties coming onto the market each month?