LONDON, Aug 8 Reuters Britain39;s housing market looks set for a sales bounce in the coming months after the Bank of England cut interest rates and the new government turned its focus to the sector, a survey showed on Thursday.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its measure of expected sales over the next three months was the strongest since January 2020, immediately before the coronavirus pandemic struck Britain.

The new government39;s focus on boosting housing development alongside the recent quarterpoint base rate cut does appear to have shifted the mood music in the sales market, RICS Chief Economist Simon Rubinsohn said.

Inevitably, significant challenges lie ahead in delivering on the ambitions around planning reform and it is far from clear that the Bank of England will follow the August move with further easing over the coming months, but, even so, the policy mix is becoming more supportive for the sector, he added.

The overall picture for the housing market brightened slightly last month as mortgage rates fell ahead of the Aug. 1 BoE cut to borrowing costs from their 16year high.

A measure of new buyer enquiries turned positive for the first time in four months and agreed sales also improved.

But RICS39; measure of house price prices in July slipped back to 19 from June39;s 17. Economists polled by Reuters had expected an improvement to 10.

Other house price data previously released by mortgage lenders Nationwide and Halifax pointed to a…