Quantcast
Menu

News

Bad news for buyers as property supply falls in October

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
10/11/2017

UK property supply fell by 4.3% in October, as 75% of UK towns saw a drop in new supply of homes onto the market, according to HouseSimple.com.

The dip follows a 20% spike in new listings in September.

Biggest fallers

Supply of property plummeted by 37.4% in Torquay and 37.0% in Oxford, said the online estate agent. Wolverhampton also has the dubious honour of being the only city in the UK where new property listings have fallen for the fifth month in a row.

In London, after new property supply shot up by more than 40% in September, supply has dropped off again, down 1.2% in October. Only two boroughs, Ealing (10.4%) and Enfield (10.1%), saw double digit rises in new property listings last month.

Alex Gosling, CEO of HouseSimple.com, said: “A shortage of new properties coming onto the market has been an issue for as long as anyone can remember, and despite a substantial boost in supply in September, levels have lapsed again in October, albeit they only retreated 4.3% which is cause for some optimism.

“The housing market is in desperate need of a prolonged period of supply growth rather than isolated months where seller numbers rise, only to fall back the following month. We probably won’t see numbers jump again this year, but steady levels in November and December would at least give the market a strong base going into the New Year, particularly with some heavy Brexit headwinds heading our way. The Government can also play its part by delivering a positive Autumn Budget for the UK property market in a couple of weeks’ time. A shake-up of the Stamp Duty tax system would be a good start.”