PropertyMar 8 2017

North leads the way as housing supply rises

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North leads the way as housing supply rises

Housing supply in the UK rose by 13.3 per cent in February as sellers slowly began to return to the market after a winter slowdown.

Property supply increased in 83.7 per cent of UK towns and cities in February, with Warwick seeing a surge of 76.2 per cent, according to the latest Property Supply Index from online estate agents HouseSimple.com.

Edinburgh and Carlisle also witnessed strong gains of 59.7 and 54.6 per cent respectively, with eight of the top ten risers in the north of the country and one in the midlands.

In contrast, the rise in supply in London was a meagre 4.7 per cent, despite strong gains of 23.1 per cent in Kensington and Chelsea and 20.4 per cent in Lambeth.

High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, was the sole southern town to make the top ten with an increase of 42.2 per cent.

The towns and cities that experienced the biggest decreases in new listings were more evenly spread around the country, with losses of 12.6 per cent in Bootle, 12.4 per cent in Guildford and 8.5 per cent in Salford.

Alex Gosling, chief executive of online estate agents HouseSimple.com, commented: “The market needs a boost in supply and it’s encouraging to see that new listings are up in February, albeit that we would typically expect numbers to rise in the coming months as sellers list their properties in time for the spring market.

“What’s more encouraging is that new stock levels are higher than October 2016 and only slightly short of September 2016, both traditionally strong months for the property market.

"Now we need to see buoyant listings figures in March and April because the buyers are definitely there, and thanks to the continued competitive mortgage deals still on offer, they are committed to purchasing.”

Stuart Gregory, managing director at Southampton-based Lentune Mortgage Consultancy, said: “It is very slow out there at the moment and it is feeding into housing prices being fairly stable. I think at the moment there is an intermediary stage where with the impact of the buy to let changes have not yet been truly felt. I think a few landlords may come to realise they need to dispose of some of their properties and that will increase supply. 

“There has been a high level of interest from first-time buyers, which is changing the market a bit, but there needs to be a lot more confidence out there. There is uncertainty over Brexit and people thinking ‘we may as well sit tight and improve the property we have got’. We may well see a boost around Easter time.”



simon.allin@ft.com