"Brits showed willing to press ahead with their property plans regardless of Brexit. "
Additionally, the number of properties coming onto the market this month rose by 4.2% and has risen by 7.5% on the year.
In its report, haart said that "uncertainty is the new normal and extended Brexit negotiations are unlikely to stifle activity".
House prices across England and Wales are continuing to ease, falling by 1.7% on the month and by 3.7% on the year.
As a result, the average purchase price for first-time buyers has fallen by 0.9% on the month and by 1.6% on the year.
This comes as the number of first-time buyers registering onto the market rises by 9% on a monthly basis.
Paul Smith, CEO of haart, commented: “Although government delays on Brexit are frustrating, this level of uncertainty has become the new normal. Data from across our branches revealed that market activity was stronger than expected throughout February. Whilst we have referenced pent up demand in the market before, we are now seeing this demand translating into transactions, with an annual uptick in transactions of 7%. Buyers and sellers alike are fed up of waiting and are finally taking the plunge.
“Registrations also continued to increase on the month (15.6%) and the year (6.8%), as Brits showed willing to press ahead with their property plans regardless of Brexit. Whilst this trend was also present in January, we saw a modest monthly increase in new sellers coming to the market in February too (4.2%), meaning we should see a further uplift in transactions in the coming months if we receive some level of economic and political stability.
“Looking forward, it is difficult to predict how the market will perform given the current political turmoil. However, in the unlikely event that there is no Brexit at all, we would expect the immediate impact on the property market to be positive, but this would be for a limited period of time. Lack of confidence in the current government in delivering on its promise would threaten political stability and would therefore likely have a rolling negative impact on the market. Whilst we’d avoid the uncertainty of leaving the EU, a new government would bring fresh uncertainty. Cancelling Brexit may cause price increases in London in the short term, but we would see this level off in the medium term as the cracks in our current property legislation would look even larger with Brexit no longer overshadowing them.”
