The latest BriefYourMarket.com Property Index (analysing the combined on-market activity from Rightmove and Zoopla) shows that last week there was a slight decrease in the comparative number of properties coming to market, with 4,642 fewer properties being registered.

Properties changing status to SSTC saw a significant rise on last week, with 18,919 additional properties being updated as SSTC.

Withdrawals also saw a sizeable comparative rise on last week, with 6,535 additional properties being withdrawn.

Fall-throughs saw a slight comparative rise on last week, with 862 additional properties changing status from SSTC back to For Sale.

The top ten most impacted postcode areas for fall throughs in this period were: CR0, ME10, NG18, LU7, BA2, BB3, BN3, FY8, LU2 and NG9.

Commenting on the period 18.07.2020 – 24.07.2020, BriefYourMarket.com’s Chief Commercial Officer, Richard Combellack, said:

“Last week’s activity illustrates a couple of interesting points for me.

“Firstly, the market throughout the UK has shifted up yet another gear, as SSTC hits a new record – the highest rate since the beginning of the year.

“This shows the sheer extent of hard work that agents have been doing since lockdown restrictions were relaxed to get sales over the line, get people moving on with their lives and get the economy running. That should be congratulated by us all.

“Secondly, the extent to which the public’s imagination has been captured by the window of opportunity that the stamp duty holiday presents is certainly reflected in the fact that new properties coming to market have remained above the 60,000 mark for the second week running now. It is going to be interesting to see how long this trend continues.

“However, it is the first time that withdrawals have been above 15,000 in the six weeks.

“The sheer amount of highly-motivated sellers that agents up and down the country have to service right now inevitably means that there will be some struggling vendors that will be starting to feel neglected and begin the process of switching agencies; especially as they will want to make sure that they can also use the timeframe of the stamp duty holiday to secure a buyer.

This massive influx of sellers will inevitably create more secondary instruction opportunities.

“Foresight on these– not just what is immediately in front of them right now – would create a very powerful pipeline for agents to continue riding the wave into the future. The time to market to these is now.”

SSTC: (Total = 48,180) +48.8% increase when compared to the previous week, with 18,919 additional properties being updated as SSTC.

Busiest day in this period was Wednesday 22nd July when 20,604 properties were updated as SSTC.

Withdrawn: (Total = 15,953) +51.5% increase when compared to the previous week, with 6,535 additional properties being withdrawn.

Busiest day in this period was Thursday 23rd July when 12,566 properties were withdrawn.

Fallen through: (Total = 5,656) +16.4% increase when compared to the previous week, with 862 additional properties falling through.

Busiest day in this period was Thursday 23rd July when 2,606 properties fell through.

Count on market: (Total = 64,420) -6.9% decrease when compared to the previous week, with 4,642 fewer properties being listed.

Busiest day in this period was Tuesday 21st July when 19,365 properties were registered.

The BriefYourMarket.com Property Index is exclusive to Property Industry Eye and is published weekly.