Board company Agency Express says the buoyant start to the year’s lettings market has given way to a slowdown.

In its February survey it says month on month figures for new listings ‘To Let’ were down 17.4 per cent while listings for properties ‘Let’ slipped a smaller 0.8 per cent.

Agency Express says past years’ February figures suggest a stronger performance than that seen last month when figures for properties ‘Let’ fell for the first time in four years and the decline in supply was the largest for February since the company started collecting data.

Six of the 12 regions recorded by Agency Express reported increases in properties ‘Let’, but none recorded increases in new listings ‘To Let’.

February’s top performer was the East Midlands reporting a record best month on month increase in properties ‘Let’, sitting at a robust 27.4 per cent.

Other regional hotspots for properties ‘Let By’ included Scotland up 30.4 per cent, London up 16.4 per cent and the south east up 10.1 per cent.

The largest overall declines in February were in the north east where new listings fell by 25.7 per cent, as did properties ‘Let’ by 16.2 per cent.