‘Astonishing’ August surge doubles listings in many SE commuter towns
Rightmove says some postcodes feature 120% more homes for sale than a year ago but that demand is still outstripping supply.
Latest housing market data reveals an ‘astonishing’ and continued surge in stock levels and a boom in sales despite gloomy news from the rest of the economy.
Rightmove says the frenzy of activity is most intense in London’s SE commuter towns where some agents are experiencing double the number of listings compared to the same time last year.
And despite this, the portal says demand for homes is outstripping supply, which it pins squarely on the stamp duty holiday.
Harlow in Essex (pictured) has seen the largest surge in instructions with listings up 121% compared to the same time last year.
It is followed by Hertford (+113%), Wickford (+105%), St. Albans (+ 100%) and East Grinstead (up 98%), towns that are all within a 70-minute train commute of Central London.
Nationally, demand has risen by 61% compared to the same period last year, while the top performing regions are the South East (+74%), and East of England (+72%).
Across all regions the percentage growth in demand is outstripping the growth in new supply.
Almost 94,000 new listings were brought to market across London, the South East and East of England between 8th July and 16th August, which is over 31,000 more than the same period in 2019.
Jake Latch (left), sales negotiator at Reyland Johnson Estate Agents in Harlow, says: “The stamp duty holiday has been absolutely massive for the Harlow market and we’ve been ridiculously busy over the past few weeks.
“We’ve been rushed off our feet since the market reopened but I don’t think we ever expected to be this busy.”
Andy Soloman, CEO of Yomdel (right), says: “When looking at the crazy levels of activity you can only say astonishing so many times before it becomes boring, but I’ll say it just once more: ‘Astonishing’.
“We have the perfect storm of good intent here, with people swarming across estate agent websites, they are motivated and they want good agents to help them, but there are some real challenges.”
