Property supply in UK up over 47% compared with March 2017

New property listings in major towns in the UK increased by 1.1% in March month on month with Chichester seeing the largest rise with 47.1% more properties coming onto the market, new research shows. It means that year on year new listings have increased by 43.3% compared with March 2017, according to the property supply index compiled by online estate agent HouseSimple. The firm’s report suggests that the large annual rise was probably affected by Brexit. In March 2017 the number of new properties listed in March actually fell 27.7% compared to February as buyer and seller confidence was hit by fears that invoking Article 50 would spark economic turmoil. Overall, across the 100 towns and cities analysed in the index, it was almost a 50:50 split between towns that saw an increase in new sellers putting their homes on the market in March and those towns where new seller numbers fell last month. After Chichester the next biggest rise in new listings was an increase of 32.9% month on month in Durham, followed by a rise of 29.4% in Bootle, a rise of 24% in Chester and in Oldham, a rise of 23.6% in Hastings and a rise of 22% in Stirling, Scotland. At the opposite end, Rochdale saw a 26.3% fall in new listings in March, followed by Sale down 23.7%, Bath down 22.7%, Lancaster down 21.6%, Swindon down 21%, Torquay down 20.8%, Grimsby down 18.7% and Dundee down 18.3%. In London new property listings were up by 4.4% in March compared to February. Newham saw the most dramatic rise in listings last month, with new sellers up 45.1%, followed by Barnet up 16.8%, Hillingdon up 16.4%, Enfield up 14% and Hackney up 13.2%. ‘Seller activity has already picked up noticeably since Easter, and in the current buyer’s market, the successful seller will be the one who stands out from the crowd, whether that’s pricing their property realistically or offering a superior product to the market,’ said HouseSimple’s chief executive officer Sam Mitchell.