"The period of uncertainty has been removed hopefully we can get back to normal and enjoy a good spring and summer market," declared Mark Hayward, Bucks chairman of the National Association of Estate Agents, as Tony Blair posed with his family on the steps of No 10.

Property experts believe there's everything to be gained by moving now instead of waiting for the effects of the long-term changes the Government has in store for the property market.

"The short-term impact of the Labour victory is likely to be marginal," forecasts Piers Banfield, sales and marketing director of Banner Homes, the Wooburn Green-based housebuilder. "Election cycles used to affect the market because of Government control of interest rates but since the Labour Government passed on responsibility for this in 1997 to the Bank of England, the setting of interest rates has remained free from political interference.

"The effect in the longer term is harder to predict. The market continues to be severely affected by the lack of supply of new housing," claims Banfield.

"A planning system in crisis serves to further restrict supply, and while we have significant growth in the number of households per annum we are still building less homes each year than in any year since the end of the Second World War."

One of the reforms all sides agree will have a major impact on the market is the introduction of Home Information Packs in 2007.

Although the other two parties had pledged to scrap the packs, Piers Banfield believes HIPs will be good for the industry on the whole. "They will remove abortive costs for potential buyers and streamline the buying process to the benefit of buyers, sellers, agents and housebuilders."

Savills' chief executive Rupert Sebag-Montefiore agrees there will be positive gains from the new legislation. "Gathering all legal documentation in advance of a sale will in fact does in some cases now enable contracts to be exchanged with the minimum delay.

"However the introduction of compulsory surveys by the seller is a somewhat cloudier affair. They will entail a large cost to the seller and inevitably wipe out many of those vendors wishing to test the market.

"The net result of all this is likely to be less supply and higher prices, peversely the reverse of what the Government is hoping to achieve."

Piers Banfield concludes: "On the basis that the Government is likely to be looking for ways to raise taxation, potential buyers would be well advised to get on and buy today rather than delaying."