The online estate agents' research shows that the summer has seen a drought of properties coming onto the market in the capital. Since the start of June, not a single borough in London has seen an overall rise in new property listings, with listings dropping by 24.8% across the capital from June to August.
The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea has been the worst affected, with new listings down 43.6% since the start of June, while the borough of Haringey hasn’t fared much better, as new stock levels have fallen 36% since the start of the summer.
The Midlands and South of England have been the worst hit regions in August, with 12 of the 15 cities experiencing the biggest drop in new property listings last month in these areas. For example, Taunton saw property listings fall by almost a third (31.1%) in August, and that’s after new listings rose slightly (2.4%) in July. Lichfield saw a 29.3% fall in the supply of new stock in August compared to July, following a 12.1% drop in July.
Alex Gosling, CEO of online estate agents HouseSimple.com commented:
“Across the country there are thousands of frustrated buyers, with finance in place, ready to purchase, but the property supply reservoir has dried up.
“They must be scratching their heads as to why sellers aren’t marketing, as there’s no clear or single reason why sellers are sitting on their hands. The General Election was expected to be the catalyst for sellers returning to the market.
“We would expect to see activity drop off over the summer holidays, so September will give us a better gauge as to how imbalanced supply and demand are right now. The hope is that after a summer when supply fell off a cliff, sellers will rediscover their appetite over the coming months.”
