New Homes Month, which ends on October 3, stresses the key advantages of buying brand new - lower energy bills, less hassle in the absence of a chain of buyers, lower maintenance costs, and the chance to stamp your personality on a home where nobody has lived before.

Another attraction is that the premium for buying new has been squeezed in the recession. Price per square foot might be pretty close to the cost of second-hand property.

Although lower energy bills are another big bonus for any homeowner, latest statistics on new home completions suggest an even stronger reason to talk to a builder this month: sales are running at such low levels that many will be very keen indeed to clinch a deal.

Weekly figures compiled by the Home Builders Federation, which represents 300 member firms producing 80 per cent of all the new homes built in England and Wales, and leaked to the Financial Times suggest the number of reservations for new homes being made has fallen "to the lowest level on record". In the five weeks up to late August, total net reservations stood at 3,353 - five per cent lower than the 2008 housing market, and 22 per cent below the level recorded in August 2009, when house prices were recovering strongly.

With the latest Nationwide Building Society analysis also indicating a monthly fall in house prices, many potential buyers may be thinking to sit on their hands until the new year and perhaps to go ahead with a purchase then, if things haven't got much worse. However, our research suggests that buyers prepared to go ahead now will get a very warm reception if they visit a show home.

There is further evidence to support this in the latest Housing Market Report. It indicates that plenty of builders are fairly flexible on price; in July, for the fourth month in a row, they stepped up their use of sales incentives, which are, in most cases, price cuts by another name.

However, the National House-Building Council, which registers new home starts and has revealed the level of new building is picking up slightly: in the quarter to the end of July, it received almost 31,000 registrations to build a new home, 30 per cent up on the same period in 2009.

l For more information on New Homes Month go to www.new-homes.co.uk