Easter weekend traditionally marks the start of the spring property market. Brian Page looks at what we can wxpect in the coming weeks.

EASTER, as everyone knows, is one of the most important dates in the Christian calendar. It’s also a time for chocolate eggs, hot cross buns and bunny rabbits... and the unofficial start of the property market’s spring season.

As the weather begins to turn (in theory at least) and gardens begin to show signs of life after the long winter, people begin to think about moving home.

As Ben Hudson, of Hudson- Moody, puts it: “Easter marks the traditional start of the spring market.

People see more property coming onto the market, that creates more interest and encourages them to think about putting their own home up for sale.”

But if you are thinking of selling – or buying – what is the market going to be like in the months ahead?

It is notoriously hard to predict property trends, but Ben Hudson is looking forward to a period of stability after the turmoil of the last four years.

“In the last four or five years we have been dealing with much lower volume than in previous years. We are now starting to come into a much more stable marketplace.

“We are also seeing more mortgages out there as the Government’s Funding for Lending programme begins to have an effect. I am not predicting booms or anything like that, but we are certainly optimistic for the year ahead.”

Interestingly, that optimism might have its roots in the last quarter of 2012 – at least here in North Yorkshire, where year-on-year house prices rose by 2.7 per cent in York and by a whopping 7.3 per cent in Selby.

Average house prices in these areas are now £203,485 and £195,367 respectively. And it is an optimism backed by a recent release from Barratt Homes which announced the new homes builder plans to start work on 12 new projects, involving more than 1,200 properties in Yorkshire this year.

Sandra Mapplebeck, of Yorkbased RM English, says there are reasons to look on the bright side: “We have had our best start to the year since we started in 2003. We have had some really interesting stock and we have been making sales. There is a much higher viewing interest and we are really pleased with the way things have gone.”

Oliver Newby, of Stephensons, is also optimistic for the year ahead – but sounds a note of caution.

Common sense is still needed in pricing.

“It is still a buyer’s market and agents are having to negotiate very hard on prices,” he says. And, he adds, it is important that the ‘bottom end’ of the market remains strong – for the sake of the whole of the sector.

“We need the first-time buyers, the investment properties, the buy-to-let and the terraced town houses to be selling because that has a knock-on effect. The chain that sells one of four-bedroomed properties in Wilberfoss, say, relies on the bottom end of the market being strong.”

But what type of properties are selling? That, pretty much all agents agree, is right across the market from two-up, two-downs to modern townhouses to period properties.

And, Sandra Mapplebeck adds, there is evidence of a new trend.

With property prices in the South remaining higher than the North – a gap predicted to grow even wider in the next decade – there is something of a sea change in the market.

“We are no longer operating in just a local market,” she says. “It is now 50-50 between local and from away; we have had a lot of sale with people coming up from London, for instance.”

So, if you want to bag a bargain before the southerners arrive, you might need to act quickly – starting this Easter weekend.

Inside this week’s Property Press we will be featuring a selection of house styles – and prices to give a flavour of the Easter market. Happy house-hunting!