Agents saw a leap in new business last month despite the financial turmoil and interest rate rises.

Instructions went up by almost 10% compared to the same period in 2019, research from proptech firm TwentyEA reveals.

Inner London recorded the largest leap in instruction numbers, up by 39.43%, followed by Northern Ireland (18.14%), Wales (16.22%), Scotland (15.66%) and outer London (10.4%).

Katy Billany, executive director of TwentyEA, says: “The instruction volumes for September show that the market is holding up, despite the worsening cost of living and the large increase in borrowing costs.

“The property market has been defying the doomsters for months”.

“The property market has been defying the doomsters for months, and the instruction volumes for September are reassuring.”

Budget impact

She says that monitoring of the impact of the Mini-budget on 23 September shows that in the three weeks immediately afterwards properties continued to come to the market at the same level as the three weeks prior, with instructions actually rising by 0.2%

“While this is great news for agents, the competition for stock remains fierce. As of September, aside from inner London, most regions had between 2.5 and three months of available stock.

“This was an increase compared to September 2021, but still considerably lower than historical norms,” she adds.

Propertymark figures released earlier this week showed estate agents reporting a 50% increase in the number of instructions at each branch. The number for sale leapt from 20 to 30 since April.