Northern towns saw year-on-year house sales increase last year

New figures have claimed that all northern towns saw property sales increase in 2013 compared to 2012, reports dailymail.co.uk, showing that the housing market improvement is not just limited to London.
The research from Lloyds Bank suggests that 98 per cent of towns in England and Wales saw the number of houses sold increase last year. In 2012, only a quarter of towns experienced the same.
Using figures from the Land Registry, Lloyds found that 396,756 homes were sold over the six months leading up to September last year, an increase of 21 per cent compared to the same period the previous year. It is also the highest year-on-year rise seen in ten years, reports bbc.co.uk.
However, the peak still belongs to the six months leading up to September in 2006, when a record 673,699 homes were sold. This means that 2013's sales were 41 per cent below 2006's, showing the market still has some way to go.
Marc Page, mortgages director at Lloyds Bank, explained why home sales increased so much in 2013.
"Low interest rates, improvements in consumer confidence and government schemes, such as Help to Buy, all appear to have contributed to the rise in home sales," he said.