Rising sales volumes together with a dwindling supply of housing for sale and a continued increase in demand are underpinning pricing levels, Hometrack has said.

Hometrack reported no change in house prices during June, in it’s monthly house price survey based upon 6,160 responses from 1,802 agents and surveyors across all 2300 postcodes in England and Wales.

Richard Donnell, Director Research, Hometrack said: “The last 6 months have seen the volume of buyers grow by 36%, this compared to a 6.4% increase in the number of homes for sale. In London, the increase in demand for housing (+52%) has been almost tenfold compared to the growth in the supply of homes for sale (+5.6%).

A pick up in sales also continued this month. The latest survey shows that volumes were up in June by 4.6%, the fifth month in a row. Since the start of the year sales have risen by over 80% – albeit off a low base.

Other leading market indicators reflect an improvement in sentiment with the average time on the market down to 9.4 weeks from a recent high of over 12 weeks in January 2009.

The proportion of asking price being achieved has also increased – for the fourth month in a row – from 88.3% in February 2009 to the current 91%.

New buyer registrations rose by 4.6% in June but were down compared to the previous 2 months. A trend likely to continue as we head towards the summer.

On a regional basis the increase in demand over the last 6 months has not been uniform with a clear split between southern England and the rest of the country. London and the South East have seen a respective 52% and 46% rise in demand over the first half of the year compared to a 19% increase in Wales and a 20% rise in the North East. “