The housing market in the UK, and in Scotland, is showing a few positive signs, according to new figures from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Scottish Government.

The latest RICS housing market survey reveals that the number of houses sold in the UK has reached its highest level in over two-and-a-half years, with chartered surveyors selling an average of 16.8 homes in the three months to February.

Surveyors are cautiously optimistic that this trend will continue, with 8% more of the surveyors who responded to the RICS survey predicting that the number of people successfully selling a house will continue to rise rather than fall over the coming three months.

Price-wise, while more surveyors thought prices were still dipping a little than rising, RICS believes that, in general, prices have remained relatively stable since the autumn.

According to the Scottish Government, there has also been an increase in the number of new homes started in the year to September 2012. This has increased by 11% on 2011 and is the first increase since 2006.

A total of 13,830 new homes were started compared to 12,427 in the year to 30th September 2011, it says.