Dwindling stock blamed for 2018's falling house sales

According to the data, transactions fell in 241 of 374 local authority areas, with an average decline of 4.9%. Stevenage witnessed a 27.5% drop, Newcastle-under-Lyme a 16.2% slump and Cambridge a fall of 16%.

A total of 122 areas saw transactions fall by more than 5%, while 41 local authorities witnessed sales drop by more than 10% and 11 areas more than 15%.

Greater London was also deeply affected with Tower Hamlets and Croyden the worst affected, seeing falls of 22.5% and 15.4% respectively.

The best performing towns/cities outside London were Chorley (17%). Hull (13.9%) and Lincoln (12.3%).

Joseph Daniels, CEO of Project Etopia, commented: “It might not be immediately obvious what transaction levels have to do with the housing crisis, but the answer is a great deal. Lack of housing stock means we’re on a merry-go-round of gyrating house prices in this country .

This feeds into massive price gains that occur over just a few years, causing people to think of their house as an investment not a home. When storm clouds gather on the horizon they then guard their most valuable possession by sitting tight. It’s easy to forget that there were 231,690 fewer homes sold in the last financial year than a decade earlier.

If we had more stock, this boom and bust would be a thing of the past and the sands wouldn’t keep shifting under developers’ feet.”