The National Advisory Council of the UK’s largest network of independent estate agents reports a market 'split' across most regions.

In most parts of the UK, the housing market is recovering from the uncertainties triggered by recent interest rate rises and alarming predictions for house prices, which frightened many home sellers and would be buyers.

This is the verdict of the latest meeting of the National Advisory Council (NAC) of Home Sale Network, the UK group of 750 independent estate agents. Each Home Sale Network NAC member represents all members in their region.

While details differ across the fourteen regions, the overall picture is of an emerging two-tier market, split between vendors who demand a pro-active sales service and are responding to moderated prices, and those who want to believe inflated valuations and are ignoring the offers being made.

According to Richard Tucker, Managing Director of Home Sale Network: "Our latest National Advisory Council meeting confirmed that February has been a turn-around month. There is no doubting that the housing market is now much tougher, but February has seen a marked improvement, with more buyers and a growing recognition among serious vendors that prices have merely cooled."

"The fact remains, though, that the market has changed. It is no longer the case that anyone can sell every property quickly for ‘top dollar’ prices. Some estate agents are going out of business, while the more experienced firms are refusing to list properties with unrealistic prices at unreasonable fee-levels," said Mr Tucker.