Zoopla's latest figures show buyer search activity climbing 7% year-on-year, a modest but meaningful signal that confidence is trickling back into a housing market that spent much of the past two years in a defensive crouch. On the surface, a single-digit uplift in searches might seem an unremarkable data point. But in a market where transaction volumes fell to their lowest level in a decade during 2023, and where mortgage approvals only began stabilising in early 2024, any sustained increase in buyer intent deserves serious attention from investors, agents and lenders alike.