Estate agents are preparing for a period of hibernation in the housing market until the beginning of next year, as more homeowners choose to delay moving until after Christmas.

Some of the country’s biggest estate agents have indicated that the number of property listings has slipped further in October. Rightmove has reported that the number of properties coming on to the market has fallen by 10.6 per cent in the past four weeks, from 105,924 in August to 94,629.

Although an autumn dip is expected, agents have said that the decline in transactions is likely to be more significant this year because of the extremely low supply of homes for sale, which has left some agents short of stock.

The latest figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) showed that the number of agents reporting a rise in new instructions fell from 12 per cent in August to 4 per cent in September. Surveyors also reported weaker demand, with the balance reporting an increase rather than a decrease in new buyers falling to 36, from 47 in August.

The persistence of the decline in new listings has confounded agents, who had expected price rises to encourage homeowners to put their properties on the market.

House prices have risen by 4 per cent this year, according to Nationwide. Figures from Savills show that prices in London are up by as much as 8 per cent.

Analysts believe that the relative buoyancy of the market in London and the South has meant that national price indices do not give a true reflection of what is happening to prices elsewhere. For example, figures from Hometrack show that prices have fallen by 8.9 per cent in town centres in the North East and by 9.2 per cent for city centre homes in the South West in the past six months.

Andrew Smith, head of research for the Digital Property Group, said: “While we are seeing price rises elsewhere, the stronger performance in London affects the topline figure. The recovery is geared towards the South but our figures show some parts of the country, such as the North West, recorded negative growth last month.”

Carter Jonas, a nationwide estate agent, said that sales at its London offices were up by 45 per cent between August and September and 90 per cent higher than in September last year. This compared with a 32 per cent rise on September last year for the UK. Cluttons, a London-based agent, said that, despite expectations that landlords would decide to stop letting property and sell instead, it had not experienced any increase in sales stock. It said that its sellers were achieving offers up to 5 per cent in excess of pre-credit crunch levels because of a lack of competition from other vendors. The dearth of new instructions is also evident in other parts of the country.

Anthony Wardell, head of home counties for Knight Frank, the estate agent, said: “As we head towards Christmas, people don’t want to move. We had thought that with the better market data, homeowners would be more confident about selling, but the message has not come through. We are now expecting potential sellers to wait until early next year.”

There is some evidence that interest from buyers is also beginning to wane in response to the lack of choice. Richard Donnell, director of Hometrack, the housing market research group, said: “Builders and agents had said that they were very busy in summer, but they have been telling me that activity has dropped off significantly in the past four weeks. The market is starting to cool off again. It was going to have to slow down again at some point. A lot of the rise has been coming out of London, anyway, but there is hardly any stock there now.”

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