Residential property transactions edged up in May as the market begins to return to normal in the aftermath of the buy-to-let stamp duty rush.

HMRC property transaction data showed there were 89,700 residential and 10,790 non-residential transactions during May.

That is up from 88,400 residential transactions in April.

For May 2016 the number of non-adjusted residential transactions was about 13.0% higher compared with April 2016, according to HMRC.

Broken down by region, England had 72,230, followed by 6,750 in Scotland, 3,710 in Wales and 1,610 in Northern Ireland.

On an annual basis residential transactions were 13.8% lower than on May 2015 when there were 101,850 transactions.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, transactions increased by 1.5% on April and decreased 11.9% year-on-year.

The low level of transactions for these months may reflect industry predictions that the buy-to-let Stamp Duty changes would move sales that might have taken place later this year to earlier months.

Rob Weaver, director of investments at property crowdfunding platform Property Partner and a member of the British Property Federation’s residential committee, said: “Despite the Government’s dire warnings about the economic effect of a Leave vote, as we approach polling day, home sales seem to be edging up again.

“What these figures really show is the continuing ripple effect of the Government’s Stamp Duty changes on the housing market.

“The desperation to complete before the April 1st deadline pulled forward thousands of housing transactions that would normally have happened in April or May. March recorded the highest number of transactions in a decade.”