"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 almost every (98.4%) town and city in December, with new listings lower than at any point over the course of the past year. In Southport, for example, new property listings fell by more than 71%, while supply dropped by 70.1% in Rugby during the last month of the year. Only Salford and Telford saw property listings increase – up 8.5% and 4.1% respectively in December.
To compile the Index, HouseSimple looks 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.
The following table shows the UK towns and cities that experienced the biggest falls in new property listings in December versus November:
|
Town/City |
Region |
% fall in new listings in December vs. November |
|
Southport |
North West |
-71.2% |
|
Rugby |
West Midlands |
-70.1% |
|
Edinburgh |
Scotland |
-66.6% |
|
Bootle |
North West |
-65.8% |
|
Inverness |
Scotland |
-64.9% |
|
Crawley |
South East |
-59.3% |
|
Newquay |
South |
-58.3% |
|
Aberdeen |
Scotland |
-57.8% |
|
Southend-On-Sea |
East |
-56.2% |
|
Watford |
East |
-56.2% |
The capital saw a larger than average drop in new properties being advertised, with the supply of new homes down by 53.6%. In London, the boroughs of Bromley and Enfield saw the sharpest drop-off in new listings, down 62.3% and 60.2% respectively.
The following table shows the London boroughs that experienced the biggest falls in new property listings in December 2016 versus November 2016:
|
London Borough |
% fall in new listings in December vs. November |
|
Bromley |
-62.3 |
|
Enfield |
-60.2% |
|
Hackney |
-59.5% |
|
Bexley |
-59.4% |
|
Kensington and Chelsea |
-59.3% |
|
Haringey |
-58.8% |
|
Ealing |
-58.2% |
|
Waltham Forest |
-57.6% |
|
Kingston upon Thames |
-57.4% |
|
Harrow |
-57.0% |
Alex Gosling, CEO of online estate agents HouseSimple.com, comments: “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.”
