'Staggering' decrease in November property listings

New property listings fell by 21.5% across the UK in November, according to the latest Property Supply Index from online estate agent HouseSimple. 

The findings, taken from Rightmove, revealed that Bath experienced the largest drop in property supply in November, with new property listings down by 42.6%, which has steadily declined since June. 

The West Midland cities of Worcester and Solihull saw new listings drop 41% and 39% in November. 

Only Chichester and Salford experienced an increase in property listings in November compared to October, with rises of 14% and 11% respectively. 

London has witnessed a dramatic drop in property listings across November, dropping by 21% in the last month alone, according to Rightmove. 

The boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Bromley and Hillingdon have demonstrated the largest decrease of 30% and 31% respectively. Property listings failed to increase in any London borough, according to the findings. 

Alex Gosling, CEO of HouseSimple.com comments: “Historically, as we get closer to Christmas, the property market does start to slow down, so a fall in property supply levels is not unexpected.  However, the drop off is too dramatic to be simply attributed to seasonality factors alone.”

“The government has implemented several schemes to help people get onto the property market, the latest of which being the Help to Buy ISA. However, they aren’t addressing the supply shortage, and if there are no homes to buy, these schemes are just window buying,” he added. 

HouseSimple's findings have since been questioned by a number of housing market analysts.