ABOUT £9.2 billion worth of property in Yorkshire and Humberside is set to change hands between now and September.

New research from Sainsbury's Bank's Home Moving Index predicts that seven per cent of homeowners in the region - 101,850 people - plan to move over the next five months.

That is a two per cent increase in the number of people who planned to move between October 2002 and March 2003 - suggesting that the housing market in the region is not slowing down.

Predictably, the bank claims that one reason for this was the drop in interest rates earlier this year when the Bank of England base rate was cut by 0.25 per cent.

Most mortgage providers cut their rates by about 0.15 per cent, but Sainsbury's Bank points out that it was one of the very few lenders which dropped its standard variable rate by the full 0.25 per cent.

Its rates now start from 3.2 per cent.

Updated: 10:03 Tuesday, May 27, 2003