by Helen Geraghty

Kent is heading a surprise early boost in the housing market, county developers and estate agents said today.

As mortgage lender, the Halifax, announced that house prices rose unexpectedly by 0.8 per cent in January, Kent experts said buyer levels had been good for several months and market confidence was high.

Michael Utchanah, senior partner at Robinson Michael Jackson estate agents, Medway, said: "We have found confidence returning to the market for a few months now.

"Smart buyers and sellers are already taking advantage of the great choice of affordable homes on the market and more favourable mortgage terms.

"The latest news from the Halifax will only add to the confidence in the Kent property market."

At Pentland Homes' Bayeuxfields development at Hawkinge, near Folkestone there was a late surge in sales in November and December and then another in the second half of January.

Sales and marketing director Janet Burnell said: "All of a sudden we got to the middle of January and we were absolutely inundated with visitors.

"On the last weekend in January we saw the highest visitor levels that we have seen in three years.

"We sold five houses in the second half of January and the number of visitors out there intent on buying has been good.

"East Kent has benefited from various regeneration projects and, predominantly, the high speed rail link to London, which has helped house prices to bounce back to a similar level to 18 months ago."

Economists had forecast house prices would stay flat in January.

House prices for the three months to the end of January, traditionally a difficult time for the housing market fell overall, by 2.4 per cent compared with the same time the previous year.

Halifax economist Martin Ellis said he expected interest rates to remain low for "some time".