August sees 6.6% drop in new property listings

After July saw new properties being listed by estate agents down 13.2% across the UK, August has seen a further 6.6% fall in new listings, according to the latest Property Supply Index compiled by online estate agents HouseSimple.com.

In London, the lack of supply is reaching critical levels. The number of Londoners putting their properties on the market has fallen dramatically over the summer, with new property listings down almost a quarter (24.8%) in the capital since June.

To compile its Property Supply Index, pay-as-you-go agent HouseSimple.com looks at the number of new properties listed on Rightmove every month, in more than 100 major towns and cities across the UK and all London boroughs. Less than a quarter of those towns and cities saw new listings rise in August.

The following table shows the UK towns and cities that have seen the biggest falls in new property listings in August compared to July:

 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.

London

According to HouseSimple.com research, 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, home of the super wealthy, has been the worst affected borough. New property listings in Kensington and Chelsea are 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 following table shows the biggest falls in new property listings in London boroughs in August compared to June:

Alex Gosling, CEO of online estate agents HouseSimple.com comments: “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.”