Residential transactions in the UK have been estimated at 101,740 by HMRC.

The figure has been seasonally adjusted and is provisional, but looks to be 2.3% higher than September last year and 5% higher than in August.

Without adjustment, the ‘raw number’ transactions last month look to have been around 6.3% higher than in September last year.

However, year-to-date figures as at the end of September show that residential transactions have decreased compared with the two previous years, standing at under 600,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, and at 600,000 when not adjusted.

According to the Land Registry, there were 868,886 residential transactions in England and Wales last year. This was 27% down from the almost 1.2m recorded 20 years ago, in 1999.