An easy way to see where future property price growth is going to occur – or not occur - is to look at transaction numbers.

When sales numbers lift, it means competition for properties is increasing, and what generally flows from that is price growth.

Sales activity numbers are a great forward indicator of what will happen with prices and is actually a much better barometer of what is about to happen in the market than looking at median house price data.

The figures on changes in median prices published by various research companies lag the market – they tell us what has happened, allegedly, in the recent past – but sales volumes provide clues about what will happen to prices in the near future.