"With more homes on the market, motivated sellers are adjusting their expectations and offering more competitive pricing, leading to increased levels of price reductions, now more than one million so far this year"
- Katy Billany - TwentyEA
The supply of new homes listed for sale has now exceeded 1.5 million year to date, while sales agreed subject to contract (SSTCs) have passed 1 million, according to data from TwentyEA.
Attention within the property sector is now focused on the Budget on 26 November, with agents considering how new policies could affect both housing supply and buyer demand in the months ahead.
For the time being, both supply and demand remain resilient and were higher than last year, up 3.3% and 4.1% respectively at the end of October. Demand is at its highest level since 2022, and the current demand-to-supply ratio is 72.4%, again above levels seen in 2023 and 2024.
Although demand fell 2.7% year-on-year in October, this is likely a temporary blip. October 2024 experienced exceptionally high activity as falling interest rates prompted buyers to rush transactions ahead of the 30 October Budget.
Property types
While supply and demand have risen across all property types, detached and semi-detached houses are becoming more popular. For detached homes, the demand-to-supply ratio has increased 4.6% compared with last year.
Prices
The average original instruction price in 2025 has fallen 0.8% (£3,700) over the last year. Regionally, instruction prices are generally rising in the North and Midlands, while prices in the South are either static or declining. Inner London is the only area to see prices drop by more than 3% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, the number of price reductions has now exceeded one million so far this year, 14% higher than last year. The proportion of properties with price reductions has also increased slightly, from 38.0% of concluded listings in 2024 to 38.7% in 2025.
Price changes have risen across all price bands compared with last year, with properties priced over £1m particularly affected, where reduction rates have increased by three percentage points. Overall, price reductions are decreasing in the North but rising in London and the South. Inner London has seen a 2.9 percentage point increase, making it the worst-affected region in the UK.
“The data shows that both supply and demand remain resilient despite a dip in October, and hopefully we’ll start to see demand increasing again once we have some clarity following the Autumn Budget,” said Katy Billany, executive director of TwentyEA.
“With more homes on the market, motivated sellers are adjusting their expectations and offering more competitive pricing, leading to increased levels of price reductions, now more than one million so far this year."
“At this point, all eyes are focused on the Chancellor’s Budget, which obviously falls much later than usual, to see what policy changes may emerge. Any measures that boost affordability or encourage transactions will help sustain the positive momentum we’ve seen across most regions throughout 2025.”
