House selling hits two-year high
10th October 2017

Hopeful house sellers reached a two-year high last month with all UK new listings with estate agents up by 20% over August – and over 44% in London, according to the latest Property Supply Index by online estate agent Housesimple.com.

Two thirds (65.6%) of towns and cities saw an increase in the number of new properties taken on by estate agents in September over August, with the biggest local increases in Oxford with 71.0% and Torquay, 59.8%. The biggest fall was in Luton, down by 48.0%, followed by West Bromwich at 29.2%.

New property supply rose 44.4% in London in September over August, with every borough seeing a double digit rise in new listings last month. Hammersmith and Fulham, which has seen some of biggest falls in house prices of any borough over the past few months, has seen a deluge of new sellers in September. Listings were up almost three quarters (72.5%).  last month compared to August.

Kensington and Chelsea saw an even bigger hike in new property listings, more than doubling (108.5%) in September compared to August. Sutton (13.6%) and Havering (14.0%), were the only two boroughs that saw
HouseSimple.com CEO said: “A lack of property supply has been a major issue for some time now, so it was important that September wasn’t a complete washout. Although there was a big rise in new property listings last month, we’ll have to wait and see if this pick-up is nothing out of the ordinary   after the summer lull in activity, or if sellers have finally got the bit between their teeth.”