Data released by Agency Express shows a massive spike in activity for the lettings market. 

April’s national figures for new listings ‘To Let’ rose by 12.5 per cent and properties ‘Let’ increased by 8.6 per cent – the increases were of course driven by the surge in buy to let properties purchased by landlords beating the stamp duty surcharge deadline.

Agency Express says the 12.5 per cent rise in April this year contrasts sharply with their data for previous Aprils – in April 2015 the new ‘To Let’ listings showed a fall of 11.4 per cent, and in 2014 a fall of 6.9 per cent: in April 2013 there was a fall of 1.8 per cent, with the 2012 figure being down 1.2 per cent.

The buoyant trend was widespread across the UK with 11 of the firm’s 12 regions showing increases in new listings ‘To Let’ and 10 recording rises in properties ‘Let’.

A strong market was reported in London which saw significant increases in both new listings ‘To Let’ (up a very significant 21.12 per cent) and properties ‘Let’ by an even greater 30.35 per cent. 

Other regions to record large increases in this month’s index included, for properties ‘To Let’, the East Midlands up by 29.1 per cent and central England by 27.6 per cent.

The largest decline reported in this month’s Property Activity Index was recorded by the North East. Properties ‘To Let’ fell by 4.6 per cent although over a three month rolling period figures remain up by 7.5 per cent.