London property listings surge 45% in September

Although the hike can be attributed to-some-degree to the lull over the summer period when families head off on their holidays, the number of new properties marketed across the UK was also up 6.2% on September 2017.

Every London borough saw at least a 20% rise in new property supply in September, with Kensington & Chelsea, an area favoured by foreign investors, recording a huge 96.1% increase in new listings last month.

Sam Mitchell, CEO of HouseSimple, commented: “It was one of the hottest summers on record and buyer and seller activity inevitably dropped off in July and August. But come September, it was very much business as usual. We saw a healthy level of new properties being listed last month, in what is traditionally a busy period for estate agents.

"It’s interesting to note that seller numbers are rising faster in London than anywhere else in the country. Understandably, a lot of homeowners were choosing to wait, hoping that prices would recover quickly. Now that doesn’t appear likely, the need to move is the priority. They don’t want to wait any longer and they know this is a good time to sell with plenty of motivated buyers.

“It’s not so much a case of beating the Brexit rush for the door, but more life has to go on. People will always need to move whatever is happening in the housing market and wider economy. And there seems to be more of an acceptance now amongst sellers that they need to price more realistically to attract a buyer. This sensible and measured view is helping to push through more sales which wasn’t the case before the summer.”