The housing market is welcoming its biggest growth in activity since August last year as the traditional spring surge comes into action, new research has revealed.

According to the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), homeowners looking to sell their properties have begun to flood the market since April this year, while potential buyers are also beginning to take advantage of the sudden change in market activity.

The NAEA said estate agents had an average of 62 properties on their books during April, up from 60 in March, the third consecutive month during which the number of homes on the market has increased.

There was also a slight increase in buyer numbers, rising to 278 per branch, up from 274. Despite being slighter lower than 12 months ago, property sales are also holding steady at an average of eight for every estate agent in the country.

"A major housing trend over the past six months has continued to be the relatively low numbers of sellers coming to market,” Gary Smith, president of the NAEA, commented. "For three months, however, the number of sellers has increased steadily. At the same time demand has stayed strong, as have the number of sales agreed.

"All of the trends reported by our members point to reasonably sunny prospects for the summer housing market."

However, the proportion of properties that were bought by first-time buyers has continued to buck the trend, dropping from 23% to 21%. While budget measures brought in by the outgoing Labour government promised a termination of stamp duty for first time buyers, with the country under new coalition power it remains to be seen whether such plans will be enforced.

Regardless, the NAEA’s figures will please the majority of those worried about the state of the country’s property market and could signal the beginning of a “slow and fragile journey towards recovery”.