Almost two out of every three properties listed with Rightmove at the moment are are currently sold subject to contract (SSTC), and available stock is down 26% on this time last year, as demand continues to heavily outweigh the supply of housing stock coming onto the market. However, the data does compare to when the housing market was closed in April 2020.

New properties coming up for sale greatly improved in March and were 51% higher than in February, but demand is still outstripping supply in a number of areas.

Market momentum has been building further over the past few months. So far this year Rightmove has recorded 20 of its busiest ever days for visits to the site, with a new record set last Wednesday 7th April when there were over 9.3 million visits.

On Tuesday 6th April there was a new record set for the number of people sending enquiries to agents about properties up for sale, beating the previous record set on 22nd March last month.

Rightmove’s Director of Property Data Tim Bannister said: “In a traditional year there would be a couple of record days for visits or enquiries being sent by home-hunters, but the pace of the current market caused by a combination of restrictions easing, a desire for more space and people considering different locations, has led to records tumbling week after week.

“Last Wednesday set a record of over 9.3 million visits to Rightmove, and March saw time spent on site surpass two billion minutes in a month for the first time.”

According to Rightmove, Newquay in Cornwall is currently the hottest seller’s market, where eight out of every ten homes put up for sale this year are SSTC.

Next in the top ten is Newton-Le-Willows in Merseyside, where just under 82% of properties are SSTC, followed by Plymstock in Devon with 81% currently SSTC.

All areas of the top ten hottest seller markets have seen asking prices hit records since the market reopened in May 2020, with seven of the 10 hitting a price record this year.

In stark contrast there are a number of city centres where around one in five properties are marked SSTC. In Birmingham city centre 18% of properties are marked SSTC, and in Liverpool city centre 22% are marked SSTC.

Other areas outside of city centres in the top ten buyer markets include the more expensive locations of Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire where average asking prices are over £1m, and Sunbury-on-Thames with average asking prices over £500,000.

Bannister commented: “Areas around the North and South West are the stand-out seller’s markets right now, and places in Cornwall and Devon are continuing the trend of a desire to move to the seaside and countryside.

“Suburbs are also faring well as some people move further out from the centre of cities. Both sale and rental properties in city centres have been suffering over the past year as the usual appeal to live there has temporarily been taken away, leading to more stock than usual being available, but we may see these start to shift more quickly over the next few months as lockdown restrictions continue to be removed.”

Top ten seller’s market areas

Top ten buyer’s market areas