UK property listings drop by a fifth in November as London scores zero
New property listings dropped by more than a fifth across the UK in November, with not one London borough recording a rise in supply, new research shows.
The number of new homes on the market dropped by 21.5 per cent, according to the latest Property Supply Index by online estate agents HouseSimple.com, marking the biggest drop in any one month since the index launched earlier this year.
Bath suffered the biggest decline, down 42.6 per cent while only Salford and Chichester experienced a rise across the country.
In London, new property supply fell by 21 per cent on the previous month, with Richmond upon Thames, Bromley and Hillingdon, recording the biggest falls of nearly a third. Greenwich, Barking and Dagenham experienced the smallest declines in supply.
Overall, more than half the capital’s boroughs – 18 of the 32 – saw new stock levels fall by more than a fifth in November compared with October.
HouseSimple.com tracks the number of new properties listed on Rightmove every month, in more than 100 major towns and cities across the UK and all London boroughs.
Chief executive Alex Gosling said: "Everyone knows by now that we have a property supply issue in this country, but these latest figures reveal just how severe that problem is as we head into the New Year."
“Historically, as we get closer to Christmas, the property market does start to slow down, so a fall in property supply levels is not unexpected. However, the drop off is too dramatic to be simply attributed to seasonality factors alone.
“The Government has implemented several schemes to help people get onto the property market, the latest of which being the Help to Buy ISA. However, they aren’t addressing the supply shortage, and if there are no homes to buy, these schemes are just window dressing."