Demand for homes in both the sales and rental sector frequently outstrips supply and there is no clear sign of the existing situation improving anytime some, despite a marginal improvement in the sales market in August and the government’s commitment to significantly boost housebuilding nationwide.

Sales volume data is a lagging measure which reflects the UK residential sales transactions completed in the month. The provisional August 2024 non-seasonally adjusted sales volume estimate was almost 10% higher than in August 2023, according to the latest data from Propertymark.

Overall, there was a marginal increase in the number of viewings per available property rising to an average of 3.8 per member branch for August 2024, the housing report for August 2024 revealed.

In August, stock levels grew with an average of 48 properties for sale at each member branch.

Meanwhile, the average number of new prospective tenants registered per member branch, which indicates market demand, saw registrations increase from 88 in July 2024 to 112 in August 2024.

But agents report that overall stock levels decreased, with the average number of new property instructions – managed and rent collection only – per branch, trending downwards in August 2024.

In August 2024, 55% of members reported that rents remained static and 5% reported that they had fallen.

Propertymark’s CEO, Nathan Emerson, said: “Although the year to date has seen the economy take a more stable footing, which has assisted in bringing an enhanced level of consumer confidence to the housing market, it is important to consider there are still challenges ahead. We remain at the very start of the trajectory regarding more favourable base rates and only at the starting blocks regarding the UK Government’s ambition regarding their new house-building targets. It remains imperative that immense effort is placed on upscaling a workforce to take the challenge of creating nearly 2m homes across the next five years.

“The housing sector continues to suffer from a long-standing absence of available stock, within both the sales and rental sectors. This, in turn, continues to impact sales values and rental prices across many regions. With a new UK Government now in situ, there will be a mass evolution for the entire housing sector over the coming five years in terms of planning regulations, building safety, taxation, aspirations to achieve net zero and legislation such as the Renters’ Rights Bill.

“Fundamentally the housing sector is about to embark on its biggest transformation for many decades and it remains important that all ambitions are objective and measurable and that they provide balance and fairness throughout. It remains critical that future direction is driven by data insight and wide-ranging stakeholder engagement to ensure housing remains accessible and workable for both residents and investors equally.”