Slowdown - what slowdown October saw the highest level of house sales completed in a month since November 2007 according to LSL Properties.
LSL admits that some of this is a hangover from a slowdown in transaction time earlier in the year thanks to the summer and more protracted mortgage deals thanks to MMR.
House prices climbed 0.7 per cent in October, taking the annual average increase across England and Wales to 10.5 per cent - although if you remove London and south east England, the annual rise was a more modest five per cent.
Perhaps encouragingly, some of the areas showing the fewest signs of economic recovery to date are those which have seen the strongest housing performance in recent weeks.
For example, the biggest uplift in completions in the third quarter of this year compared to the same period of 2013 came across the east and west Midlands (up 22 per cent) while London showed a much more modest rise of just three per cent.
Central London is the only area showing a significant slowdown, says LSL. Average prices there rose 0.4% in September - the smallest monthly increase for 15 months - and prices have dropped in six out of the seven most expensive boroughs over the last month.
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