New instruction levels are “challenging”, one of the large corporates said yesterday.

Connells said that in both sales and lettings, demand is outrunning supply, and that rents are rising right across England.

Reporting on the third quarter of the year, group chairman David Livesey said: “New instruction levels remain challenging and are failing to keep pace with the number of new applicants, meaning that the housing market is still fundamentally a sellers’ market.”

David Plumtree, group chief executive of Connells estate agency business, said that he does not see the shortage of new instructions changing in the foreseeable future.

Connells said that the lack of available stock is contributing to the lack of new instructions, with prospective vendors reluctant to put their property on the market until they can see a property they would like to buy.

Connells’ report follows this week’s warning by Countrywide that its profits for this year will be hit by a fall in transactions.

However, Connells has reported a rise in transactions. It reported a 24% rise in applicants in the third quarter, compared with the same quarter a year ago, an 11% jump in offers, and a 13% rise in sales agreed.

In lettings, there was a record high in the number of new applicants, with an average of 7.9 applicants for every new instruction.