The seasonal slowdown in property supply was sharper than usual in December, according to the Property Supply Index from online estate agents HouseSimple.com.
The company found new property listings across the UK down by 46.9 per cent last month.
Alex Gosling, chief executive of HouseSimple.com, said: “The run-up to Christmas is chaotic, so most people wait until January to put their house on the market - as a result, a slowdown in new listings is pretty typical.
“But the December just gone was particularly slow and the fear is that this steep drop-off could hail the start of a more tentative market as inflation starts to rise and people feel less confident financially.
“How the job market and economy perform will be critical for the property market in the months ahead.”
The UK as a whole saw new property supply fall in 98.4 per cent of towns and cities in December, with new listings lower than at any point over the course of the past year.
Southport saw the biggest drop in new property listings, with numbers going down by more than 71 per cent, while supply dropped by 70.1 per cent in Rugby.
Only Salford and Telford saw property listings increase – up 8.5 per cent and 4.1 per cent respectively.
London saw a larger than average drop in new properties being advertised, with the supply of new homes down by 53.6 per cent.
To compile the index HouseSimple looked at data on more than 500,000 listed properties to track the number of new properties marketed every month in more than 100 major towns and cities across the UK and all London boroughs.
