Valuers have reported a busy summer, suggesting that there should be healthy pipelines.

Connells Survey & Valuation say that their valuation activity last month was 57% up on July last year.

While there was a seasonal monthly dip of 24%in July  compared with June, valuation activity for first-time buyers was up 40% compared with a year ago, up 48% for home movers – and up an astonishing 76% for buy-to-let purchasers.

Remortgaging activity, ahead of the flagged-up base rate rise, also shot up – by 75% compared with July last year,

John Bagshaw, corporate services director of Connells Survey & Valuation, said: “Housing market momentum is only getting stronger.

“Moreover, the yearly figures indicate that first-time buyers are showing no real hesitancy in getting on the ladder.”

To put July’s year-on-year growth of 57% in perspective, last July (2014) valuations slipped on a similar monthly basis to 21% but on an annual basis increased by just 14% compared with July 2013.

The summer’s big year-on-year surge in activity reported by Connells comes as another national valuations firm predicts a month-on-month dip in July mortgage approvals.

See next story.