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Homeowners avoid selling up amid dwindling supplies of houses available to buy - The Times

Fewer homeowners are putting their properties on the market, despite a reported rise in average house prices, as they struggle to find decent alternative homes to buy.

Rightmove, the property search website, reports that, for every eight homes now put up for sale, the equivalent of ten are being sold, or are being withdrawn by sellers who are unable to secure the few good homes they could buy.

The website reveals today that average asking prices are now just 1.5 per cent lower than a year ago, at £223,996, after jumping 0.6 per cent in the month to September 12.

Agents, who reported a mixed summer, albeit one that was better than expected, have been waiting to assess the mood of the market this month, traditionally a busy one for sales. They feared that prices, which have been reported as rising for months, would begin to slide if demand proved weak.

Instead, buyers have snapped up the dwindling number of homes on the market, leaving the average number of unsold properties at each estate agency branch at 69, the lowest for 18 months.