The National House-Building Council has reported the highest half yearly registered new homes builds for five years. In the first six month period of 2013 the NHBC registered 67,422 homes

Richard Tamayo, commercial director at NHBC, the sector’s non-profit insurance and standards body, said “This seems a broad based recovery. London remains the engine for growth but we are seeing it elsewhere”.

Certainly Maidstone-based Hillreed Homes can testify to this.

“At some sites we are setting up data bases of interested parties long before we have laid the foundations”, says Jo Richards, head of sales and marketing at Hillreed.

“Having operated in the South East for over 35 years we are well aware of the vagaries of the property market and of course the reverberations of the world recession were felt here. Having said that, the end of 2012 and certainly all of 2013 has been proving a very healthy market

"At Leigh, near Tonbridge, a boutique development in a well sought after village, we have a substantial list of keen parties. Iwade is another Kent village where we are selling on average one to two houses per week.

"Without a doubt the Help to Buy government scheme has had an effect and around 50% of the homes we sell are via this scheme. We also have a number of other incentives too and with mortgage rates at an all time low, buyers at last are able to secure a home for themselves.

"We are now having to ramp up production to meet demand."

The picture of improvement in the housing sector was backed up when Travis Perkins, the FTSE 100 builders’ merchant, said a “very tough” start for the year had been followed by a “considerable step up” in May and June.

Revenue rose 1.6pc to £2.4bn for the first half of 2013, while pre-tax profit dropped to £134.7m from £154.8m.