40 per cent increase in new vendors coming to market, agency claims

There has been a 40 per cent increase in new vendors registering their properties for sale according to an online estate agency which monitors the wider market.

HouseSimple, which looks at the number of new properties listed by estate agents across 100 major towns and cities, says January witnessed a substantial rise in new sellers with many locations seeing new property listings more than double last month. 

After December saw just 13,430 homeowners put their properties on the market, the lowest number in any single month in 2017 by some margin; there were 24.004 new property listings in January.  

The agency says this year’s January increase has been sharper than usual with London - which has seen property prices falling over the past couple of months - saw a particularly large increase in new sellers. 

Every borough in the capital has seen more new property listings compared to December. 

New property supply was up 78.7 per cent in London last month and a fifth of boroughs saw new seller numbers double - for example, listings were up 118.7 per cent in Hillingdon and 117.3 per cent in Bromley.

Across the regions, the south saw the biggest gains in new sellers although Solihull in the West Midlands registered the single largest rise - up almost 150 per cent on December.

However, agency chief executive Sam Mitchell says: “We expect 2018 to be another challenging year for the UK housing market as the country’s exit from the EU draws closer. House price growth is likely to be single digits this year at best.”