A report released by Ernst & Young Item Club forecast a 7.5% rise in transactions in 2013, the highest since the 2007 peak.
However Grenville Turner, chief executive of countrywide, said: “Reports of 1m house moves in 2013 are incorrect. Unless the final third of the year sees a 4x normal increase in the number of sales it’s just not going to happen.
“It is unlikely that there will be any substantial change.”
David Smith, economics editor at the Sunday Times, said: “For transactions to hit the 1m mark it is likely to take 3-4 years.”
The panel also discussed the potential of a price rise during the next year and Smith said he expects a 3-5% rise this year.
However Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter argued that such a rise would “not be consistent across the UK.”
Robb said that the main driving force for price rises was a lack of supply and as such areas with the greatest shortages will see the greatest rises.
Turner agreed that the country is currently experiencing a “shortage of stock and excess of demand” and warned that the country currently has a “recipe for housing price inflation”.
Worryingly there seems to be a shortage in confidence in the UK’s ability to deliver the required number of new homes.
In an audience vote conducted at the debate not a single person said they believed the country was likely to build 150,000 homes per year in the next five years despite current building activity standing at 110,000 homes per year.
