"Buyers take a back seat in December to enjoy the festivities, while sellers keep their homes on the market in the hope that someone will take interest and make an offer. "
Overall, demand for housing fell by 20% in December, with 268 prospective home-owners registered per member branch, down from 333 in November.
Echoing this, the number of sales agreed per estate agent branch fell to five – the lowest since December 2014 and down from seven in November.
First-time buyers' market share rose from 27% in Novemver and is now at the highest rate seen since September 2016 when it was also 32%.
The supply of available properties remained fairly stagnant in December, falling by just one to 33 on average per branch, but down 20% from December 2016.
Mark Hayward, Chief Executive of NAEA Propertymark, said: “We see this year in, year out. Buyers take a back seat in December to enjoy the festivities, while sellers keep their homes on the market in the hope that someone will take interest and make an offer.
"What we don’t usually see is FTBs capitalising on this slump and using it to their advantage – 44% of our members think that the Chancellor’s stamp duty cut for FTBs will encourage more to make offers, and it looks like that’s what we’re starting to see. Hopefully this enthusiasm won’t falter when the second and third time buyers come back onto the market in the new year and competition hots up again.”
