According to property purchasing specialist, House Buyer Bureau, there has been a flurry of homeowners rushing to list their properties for sale, ahead of house prices declining.

The latest UK House Price Index shows the monthly rate of growth stalled at 0% in September. In addition to this, mortgage approvals fell by -3.8% in the last six months and -7.3% annually.

More homes on the market

House Buyer Bureau claims that homes for sale across Britain have increased, up 16% versus six months ago.

This change has been driven by many homeowners hoping to secure a buyer before the current market decline worsens and the value of their home drops.

The East of England has seen the largest uplift in sale stock, with 23% more homes entering the market for sale now versus six months ago. The North West and Wales have seen a 21% increase.

Leeds has seen extraordinary levels with 113% more homes being listed for sale across Leeds versus the level in July. Some of the largest uplifts in homes heading to market have also been seen across Liverpool (31%), Nottingham (27%), Leicester (26%), and Manchester (23%).

Managing director of House Buyer Bureau, Chris Hodgkinson, commented:

“We’ve seen numerous indicators that the market is running low on steam but this is yet to deter the nation’s home sellers, who have continued to flood the market to an even greater extent than six months ago when the pandemic property market boom was still in full swing.”

“Of course, many are doing so in hopes of securing a buyer before the current cool in the rate of house price growth materialises into an actual decline. However, we’ve already seen the level of buyers entering the market start to dwindle as a result of increasing mortgage costs and so they may well find it tougher than expected to secure an offer on their home.”

“So not only are we seeing more homes listed for sale, but there’s also less buyers looking to purchase and when you consider these two factors together, the likelihood is that this surplus for sale stock will actually help accelerate a drop in house prices.”