The number of homes for sale has fallen to the lowest level on record in a sharp slowdown from the hectic pace of buying and selling during the pandemic, according to figures from Rightmove.
Estate agents have an average of 14 properties on their books, half the level of a year ago, according to research from the online platform.
Rightmove said that it was the lowest level of homes for sale per agency since its records began in 2004.
“The kind of frenzied market we’ve seen in the last 18 months happens only a few times in most homeowners’ buying and selling lifetimes, exacerbated by the even rarer event of a global pandemic pushing homes higher up most people’s priorities,” said Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data.
“While the pandemic is still having an ever-changing impact on society as we head into the new year, we expect a housing market moving closer to normal during the course of 2022.”
Advertisement
There are signs that supply of available housing could rise over the coming months. Requests from homeowners to estate agents to have their home valued have risen 19 per cent compared with a year ago, suggesting more properties will come to market in the new year.
Across Britain, the average asking price is £340,167, a fall of £2,234 compared with November, Rightmove said.
Asking prices for December are 6.3 per cent higher than a year ago and Rightmove predicts that they could rise by a further 5 per cent next year.
Increasingly stretched buyer affordability and a wider choice of properties for sale will take the edge off sellers’ “pricing power”, Rightmove said.
The property market has been on fire since the summer of last year when the Treasury said the first £500,000 of any property purchase would be tax-free. The stamp duty relief was extended until the end of June, when it was halved to £250,000. In October the threshold returned to £125,000.
Advertisement
The market was further buoyed by the flight from city centres, with many people seeking larger properties with more outside space. The level of transactions has already surpassed last year’s and is close to the volume seen in 2007 before the global financial crisis struck.
The average UK property changed hands at a record £272,992 in November, according to the Halifax house price index. The typical home is now almost £13,000 more expensive than it had been in June and has risen in value by £33,816 since the first lockdown in March last year.
Guy Robinson, head of residential agency at the property consultants Strutt & Parker said: “Buyer demand continues to be robust and applicant numbers are still significantly higher per property than any time since 2006.”
He said that activity slowed in London during the autumn after a high number of transactions in the capital’s prime market in the first half of the year. He said that the market would rebound over the next 12 months, assuming a bounce in international travel.
“Outside London, every region has outperformed during 2021, in terms of numbers of transactions, with coastal villages and the Cotswolds major hotspots, and the £500,000 to £700,000 price range the fastest moving market,” Robinson said.
Advertisement
He predicted that counties such as Norfolk and Herefordshire could be the “biggest winners” as more people leave the capital.
