The number of house buyers increased significantly during January, the latest data from NAEA Propertymark has revealed.

It says that while property supply remains at its lowest since July last year, the number of buyers increased by 10% compared to the month before, although the number of first time buyers decreased.

“January saw a surge in buyers looking to kick off the New Year with a new home – but competition is rife with an average of 11 buyers chasing each property,” says Mark Hayward, Chief Executive of NAEA Propertymark (pictured, left).

This increase in the number of home movers looking to buy has not fed through to sales yet; the number agreed per branch rose by just one to eight, on average.

The significant imbalance between supply and demand – 425 prospective buyers per branch versus 38 properties for sale – drove up agreed prices and seven percent sold for more than their asking price, the highest level since April last year.

“The increase in the number of properties selling for more than asking price in January could be a result of heightened interest and the fact there is simply not enough housing to meet demand,” says Mark.

“When the Government issued their Housing White Paper at the start of February we stated how important it was for the industry to put forward robust solutions to really make a difference and it’s vital that building more affordable housing is at the very top of their agenda.”

But this unusually strong January surge was not spurred on by first time buyers, the data shows. During January 30% of sales went to first time buyers, down slightly when compared to December, although a year ago first time buyers took just 24% of sales, when competition from buy to let investors looking to beat the April SDLT deadline was fierce – a group who appear to have now largely disappeared from the NAEA data.