Sellers returning to the market

The number of UK homeowners putting their properties on the market has increased by 7.1% in the past month compared to the previous month, according to new research by online estate agents HouseSimple.com.

Meanwhile, 67% of major towns and cities in the UK have seen a rise in the number of new properties being marketed in the same period.

The pay-as-you-go estate agent has compiled a Property Supply Index looking at the number of new properties listed every week on the property portal Rightmove, in more than 100 major towns and cities across the UK and all the London boroughs.

These figures reveal that, although new stock levels remain low overall across the country, homeowners are finally starting to market their properties, with a large number of towns and cities seeing a pick up in new property listings in the past month – particularly in the north of England and Scotland.

The following table shows UK towns and cities that have seen the largest increases in new listings in the past month compared to the previous month:

Although the Wiltshire town of Swindon, in South West England, has actually seen the biggest rise (47.3%) in new property listings in the past month, Oxford (17.5%) is the only other city in the south to feature in the list of biggest risers.

The figures also reveal a distinct north-south divide, with homeowners in the north of England and Scotland appearing to be more active in June and July in marketing their properties. Nine out of 15 of the new property listings risers are in the north of England or Scotland, while four towns/cities in the Midlands also feature in the list.

The following table shows major UK towns and cities that have seen the biggest drops in new properties coming onto the market in the past month compared to the previous month:

Winchester, in South East England, has seen new property listings fall dramatically by 17.9%, in the past month, while Hull and Doncaster in the Yorkshire & the Humber region have seen new property listings drop by 13.7% and 12.5% respectively. And while the university city of Oxford has seen new property listings up 17.5% in the past month, Cambridge has seen new listings fall by 8.7% in the same period.

The London property market has slowed in recent months. However, Rightmove figures analysed by HouseSimple.com reveal that the capital has seen an 8.1% increase in new properties being listed in the past month compared to the previous month. More than three quarters (78.1%) of London boroughs have seen an increase in new properties being marketed in the past month.

The biggest rises in new property listings in the capital have been City and Westminster (29.5%), Islington (28.8%) and Southwark (27.1%). Meanwhile the biggest fallers have been Bromley (11.2%), Kingston upon Thames (6.6%) and Havering (4.4%).

Alex Gosling, CEO of HouseSimple.com, said: “A stampede of sellers coming to market was expected after the General Election result, but that stampede never materialised.

“In fact, for the first few weeks there appeared to be a fair amount of caution and reluctance amongst sellers to market. This may have been a case of waiting to see if property prices might start to rise rapidly with the confidence generated by a stable, majority government. Now it appears sellers have waited long enough, and we’re starting to see some movement.

“New stock levels are still quite low, but it will be reassuring for the market to see that two thirds of UK towns and cities have seen stock levels rise in the past month. The market still needs more stock to temper house price growth. One of the reasons why prices haven’t cooled, and are seemingly on a relentless upwards trajectory, has been a lack of new properties coming onto the market, especially in London. Hopefully, we’re going to start seeing a rebalancing of supply and demand.”