WHO would have thought 12 months ago that 2013 would be the year the housing market finally regained its mojo?

Yet fast-forward 12 months and a recovery is clearly well under way, with building society Nationwide just reporting that house prices across the UK surged by 8.4 per cent last year.

While much of the upturn has been put down to London and the South-East, other areas are also seeing some big price increases. In Manchester, for example, house prices rose by 21 per cent.

Meanwhile, the number of mortgage approvals made to homebuyers rose to more than 70,000 in November, according to the Bank of England – the highest number of loans given the green light since January 2008.

New research by Halifax also suggests activity will show little sign of slowing in the coming months.

Fifty-one per cent of people surveyed by the lender believe this year will be a good time to put a property on the market.

It marks the first time, since Halifax’s regular housing market confidence tracker began nearly three years ago, that the proportion of consumers predicting the next 12 months will be a good time to sell a home outweighs those believing it will be a bad time.

The housing market’s recovery has been partly put down to Government schemes such as Funding for Lending and more recently, Help to Buy.

Funding for Lending has given lenders access to cheap finance on condition that they pass the benefits on to borrowers, while Help to Buy is aimed at getting borrowers with small deposits onto, or up, the property ladder.

The Funding for Lending has now been refocused away from households and towards helping businesses instead, which could have a calming effect on the market.

Another quietener could be when stricter mortgage rules come into force in April, under the Mortgage Market Review, to make sure there is no return to irresponsible lending, and that people only take out loans they can pay back.

That said, this effect on current predictions should be small, because lenders have been anticipating these rules for a long time, and have already been adjusting their criteria accordingly.