Property supply in London fell by 21% with no London borough seeing a rise in property listings in November.
Bath experienced the biggest drop in property supply in November, with new property listings down 42.6%, following a steady decline in supply each month since June. According to Rightmove figures, only 135 new properties in Bath were listed in November, compared to a high of 284 in June.
West Midland cities, Worcester and Solihull, saw new property listings drop 41% and 39% respectively in November. While, the North West of England had five towns/cities in the 15 worst regions in the UK in terms of the biggest falls in new housing stock.
Chichester and Salford were the only towns in the UK to see an increase in new property listings in November compared to October, with rises of 14.8% and 11.6% respectively.
Bootle and Swansea have seen the biggest swing in property supply in the past two months, with October seeing a 47.4% and 36.6% rise respectively in property supply compared to September, followed by a 35.1% and 23.9% fall respectively in supply in November compared to October.
Alex Gosling, CEO of online estate agents HouseSimple.com, commented:
“Everyone knows by now that we have a property supply issue in this country, but these latest figures reveal just how severe that problem is as we head into the New Year. The total number of new property listings in November across the UK was just over 65,000 - that is nearly 20,000 less than in October, and the lowest level since we launched the Property Supply Index in May.
“Historically, as we get closer to Christmas, the property market does start to slow down, so a fall in property supply levels is not unexpected. However, the drop off is too dramatic to be simply attributed to seasonality factors alone.
“The Government has implemented several schemes to help people get onto the property market, the latest of which being the Help to Buy ISA. However, they aren’t addressing the supply shortage, and if there are no homes to buy, these schemes are just window dressing.
“It is vital the housing market starts the New Year with vigour, because there are some potentially stormy seas ahead with the new buy to let stamp duty hikes looming large on the horizon.”
