London agents running out of houses to sell

A dearth of new instructions has plunged stock levels to ‘perilous’ lows right across central London, and right across the capital there has been a ‘massive’ drop in new instructions.

Lucy Morton, partner at WA Ellis in central London, said: “Stock levels are now perilously low across all price bands and agents are reporting very few new instructions.”

The firm, which is predicting low turnover for next year, thinks house prices will continue to grow by 3-5% as a result.

This morning, Rightmove said that the lack of property coming on to the market right across London presented “a significant challenge for the capital’s housing strategy”.

Housing supply in the capital this year has been 6% down on last year and 27% down on 2007, said the site. It described the reduction as massive.

House prices in London now stand at an average £408,789 – 6.4% up on this time a year ago, despite a drop of 2.2% over the last month.

Rightmove director Miles Shipside said: “The costs of housing in the capital keep rising and look set to rise further.

“The lack of property coming to market and the rising costs of home ownership also feed through to the rental sector, putting an additional strain on the costs of living and working in the London area.

“The situation is made worse by some credit-crunched developers building fewer new homes, and overseas buyers snapping up a slice of the limited stock available.”