Home sales up a fifth in September
9th October 2018

Retrofitters have received a boost from figures published this week showing the number of homeowners putting their properties on the market rose by almost a fifth across the UK in September – and by almost half in London.

New supply was up 18.1% last month across major UK towns and cities, rising from 61,472 in August to 72,593, according to the latest Property Supply Index by online estate agents Housesimple.com. While this can be partly attributed to the summer lull over the summer period when families head off on their holidays, the number of new properties marketed was also up 6.2% on September 2017.

London saw a 45.5% increase in new listings in September, more than twice the UK average. This was the highest level of new supply coming to the market in the capital in any single month since pre-2015 – but it follows falls in supply over the two previous months.

Sam Mitchell, CEO of HouseSimple.com, said: “It was one of the hottest summers on record and buyer and seller activity inevitably dropped off in July and August. But come September, it was very much business as usual. We saw a healthy level of new properties being listed last month, in what is traditionally a busy period for estate agents.

It’s interesting to note that seller numbers are rising faster in London than anywhere else in the country. Understandably, a lot of homeowners were choosing to wait, hoping that prices would recover quickly. Now that doesn’t appear likely, the need to move is the priority. They don’t want to wait any longer and they know this is a good time to sell with plenty of motivated buyers.”