There is currently an average of 29 buyers for every available property on the market, according to Propertymark.
The average number of house hunters registered per estate agent branch stood at 571 in November, a figure that has been climbing since June 2021 and an increase of 12% from October’s figure of 511, the data shows.
But despite the jump in demand, housing supply continues to fall at an alarming rate.
The number of properties available per member branch stood at an all-time low, based on Propertymark data, of just 20 in November, a continued decline from 21 in October.
This means there is an average of 29 buyers for every available property on the market, a 21% increase in competition from October.
The average number of sales agreed per estate agent branch dropped marginally to seven in November, from October’s figure of eight, as a result of the widening supply-demand imbalance.
Year-on-year, this figure is almost half of the sales agreed last year which stood at 13 for November 2020. However, looking back over the past five years, seven is the average number of sales agreed for the month of November.
The findings also reveal that almost two in five – 38% – homes sold for more than the original asking price in November, up from around one in five (21%) in October.
A year ago, just 10% of properties were selling for above the original asking price.
The proportion of sales made to first-time buyers rose to 29% in November from 25% in October.
Nathan Emerson, chief executive at Propertymark, commented: “The pressure on the housing market and consequently house prices, is continuing at an unrelenting rate. However, heading into December, the market should start to slow.
“Those with a property to sell would be wise to act sooner rather than later as the level of demand is expected to continue into the first quarter of next year but cannot last forever.”
Come on guys – long standing bug bear of mine. What you mean is that 29 times as many buyers registered as properties were listed. Suggesting there are 29 buyers for each property is misleading and reads like a Daily Mail headline!! Merry Christmas everyone, if that’s possible….
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Ed
They are not referring to the numbers of properties listed in any period as I believe you are stating, they are quoting the total numbers of listings that each Agent reported as having available for sale.
That apart, your comment is still totally correct. The numbers are misleading and serve no purpose other than sensationalising the situation.
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Well said Ed, I typed out and deleted a reply to the article.
Whoever wrote that is not an estate agent and has never been one. Quite how it got authorised for publication raises question about those who want to provide the training and regulate us all.
Applicants who have registered an interest, people who are looking, are not buyers. 10% of registered applicants might buy, 20% of qualified applicant typically view, 20% or 30% of people who view might offer but at the end of the day there is only 1 buyer for each home listed
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“There is currently an average of 29 buyers for every available property on the market, according to Propertymark.”
Let’s just have a look at that quoted statistic… or ‘unadulterated bu****it, plucked out of thin air’ as I prefer to think of it.
At the time of posting, there are 205,423 properties for sale on RM. They claim to represent 95% of the UK market, so there should be 216234 available properties in all.
29 “buyers” for each equates to just over 6.27MILLION people supposedly all looking to buy property… today.
With, say 20,000 branches and developments having any properties for sale, that should equate to a socially-distanced 627-metre queue outside of each and every one of them, clamouring to buy whatever imorsels are left on the shelf.
Busy day ahead, people… and anyone who identifies as anything other than. Best get the coffee on.
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Absolute, complete, and utter nonsense. Propertymark should be ashamed of themselves for peddling this rubbish – which the national press is now repeating without realising just what the figures really mean.
I doubt there’s more that 10% of that number who are proceedable.
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Putting into context, only 15% of that figure will buy in the next 12 months, AgencyInsider… and new “buyers” will be registering on a daily basis to replenish their loss. And some.
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Even these who have proceeded cannot complete, even where memorandum of sale and contracts are issued there are literal tens of thousands of sales that will never complete because sales have been arranged to a seller who cannot find anything to buy.
It’s now not checking the chain backwards that’s important but checking the chain forward. A real dilemma to consider!
We’ll take it on, find a buyer, do all we can and all we usually do only to find the vendor changes their mind about moving once they realised the bumper price achieved for theirs errr….. isn’t enough. One agent I spoke to expects 50% of their agreed sales to be withdrawn from the market.
The cost of retaining properties, the benefits of income and capital growth all exacerbate the shortage of stock
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