The scheme, which has been extended once already, saved buyers paying the 1% Stamp Duty for properties valued between those two amounts. It remains to be seen whether the approaching end of the scheme will have any material impact on the present property market.

The question is will Gordon Brown extend the scheme up to the next general election as a blatant bribe to home buyers?

In the last three months, prices are up 3.8% but house prices remain 13.5% lower than their peak in October 2007. The average price of a home in the UK now back to the same level as a year ago, at £161,816.

Also figures for mortgage approvals for house purchase suggest sales activity should increase in the coming months.

House prices are rising due to a combination of low supply and more positive newsfrom lenders so anyone wishing to sell in the near future it appears that now is the best time to do so

UK House Asking Prices Increased in September according to Hometrack.

The report adds to evidence that the housing market may be starting to level off after the credit squeeze ended a decade- long boom. The rises were mainly in London and the South East and partly due to the lack of property coming on the market.

It seems that greater demand and slightly easier lending conditions is helping the property market to recover.

The bank is making an additional half a billion pounds of mortgage funding available to home buyers with deposits of 10%.

The reason for this additional funding is because there has been an increase in demand from its customers.

It is not known what interest rates are on offer with this further funding but it does appear that lenders are beginning to loosen their purse strings and it bodes well for the property market.

The Bank of England has held the bank base rate at 0.5% for the sixth month in a row.

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) monthly Market Survey for August shows the number of first-time buyers increased by 36% in August.

The NAEA says first-time buyers form the basis of chains and if sustained will lead to a general improvement in the market. As predicted by the NAEA over the past two months, the number of houses available to stopped falling and registered its first rise since April 2009.

Although, the number of registered buyers and the number of sales decreased slightly from July to August this was widely predicted because of the summer holidays.

Over a third of UK homeowners surveyed are not prepared to drop their asking price to sell their property following signs that the housing market is picking up.

Nationwide siad that house prices rose again in August by 1.6%, taking the average UK house price to £160,224, up from £158,871 in July.

This marks the fourth consecutive month of house price increases and the lender says the year-on-year decline has slowed significantly from 6.2% in July to 2.7% in August. At £160,000, the average price of a typical UK property is still slightly lower than 12 months ago.

A recent survey reveals that 20% of people think that the housing market will recover by the end of the year and a further 4% think that the end of 2010 is more likely.

The research by uSwitch also reveals that 6 million consumers predict that that the UK economy will emerge from recession before the end of 2009. A further 12% think it will end by March 2010

Rightmove, the property portal site, have reported a 2.2% fall in asking prices of properties registered by estate agents on their site. This is not unusual as the summer is traditionally a quite time in the property market with Rightmove reporting similar falls in asking prices this time last year.

However, the main reason for the slow growth of the property market is still attributed to the lack of mortgage funding. Unless buyers have a large deposit they find that obtaining a mortgage is difficult.