Gap between new listings and agreed sales widest in a year in September

The number of homes put up for sale in September outpaced agreed sales by the widest margin in a year. New listings were up 14.8% on August, reaching 213,048, while agreed sales dropped 16.1% to 89,192. That left a difference of 123,856 homes.

Conversion, the share of new listings turned into agreed sales, fell 15.4 percentage points from August to 41.9%. This was the weakest figure since last December. Between January and August, conversion had held in a range of 50.2% to 58.5%.

The figures point partly to borrowing costs. By 1 October, the typical two-year fixed rate stood at 5.93%. The effective rate on newly drawn mortgages climbed from 4.45% to 4.60%. In August, 54,900 mortgages were approved for house purchases, a figure not seen since December 2023.

Scotland had the highest conversion at 69.5%, which was 42.5 points above London at 27.0%. The six regions that beat the national figure were in the North, the Midlands, Wales or Scotland, and every southern region fell short of it. In London, new listings jumped 28.7% and agreed sales dropped 14.8%, leaving 20,868 homes from one month of supply without a buyer. No region in Great Britain had a bigger backlog than the South East, with 23,253 homes.

Listings of detached homes with five or more bedrooms grew 36.3% in a month, while their conversion slid from 51.7% to 31.9%. Two-bedroom bungalows had the best conversion of any property type, at 61.4%.

Sellers also cut prices sooner and by more. The time before a reduction shortened in ten of 11 regions, falling from 81 days to 75 in London and to 51 days in Scotland. The price reduction rate went up from 27.2% to 33.3%. By the close of September, a reduction had been applied to 39.3% of homes on the market.

Matt Gilpin, founder and CEO of Sprift, said: "September showed how quickly confidence can turn. Sellers came back after the summer, but many buyers paused as borrowing costs climbed."