Property demand across the UK has fallen by 6% since the start of 2017 to 34% with Solihull, Rugby and Bristol named as the leading hotspots.
The hotspot index from eMoov, which looks at the demand for property across the UK based on the supply and demand balance between stock listed for sale on the major portals to that which has been sold, puts Solihull at 65%.
This is followed by Rugby and Bristol both at 63%, then Eastleigh at 61%, Warwick and Portsmouth at 59%, Bromsgrove, Kettering and Kidderminster at 58% and Woking at 57%.
Rochdale and Stoke on Trent have seen the largest increase over the course of the year at 56% and 53% respectively while Aberdeen and Shrewsbury have seen the biggest drop with falls of 41% and 36%.
Overall demand in Landon was down by 25% since the start of the year to reach a year end level of 24%. Within London the borough of Bexley has the highest demand at 49% Havering, Barking and Dagenham and Hillingdon all at 46% and Sutton at 45%.
The London borough of Greenwich recorded the largest increase in 2017 with a rise of 27%, and the only other boroughs to see growth were Redbridge with an increase of 7% and Barking and Dagenham and Hillingdon up 1%.
Westminster, Lambeth and Kensington and Chelsea were the least in demand boroughs in London, all at 9% while the biggest fall in 2017 was in Newham with a drop of 55%, followed by Lambeth with a fall of 45% and Islington down 33%.
In England Oxfordshire has also seen the largest decrease since the start of the year, down 64%, while Hampshire has seen the largest uplift in buyer interest up 45% this year.
Across Scotland, buyer demand is also 34%, down 6% since the start of the year. Top demand is in Edinburgh at 56%, followed by West Lothian at 55%, East Renfrewshire at 53and Glasgow at 52%.
The lowest demand in Scotland is Aberdeen at just 8%, with the area also seeing the third largest decline over the year down 41%, beaten only by the Orkney Isles with a fall of 45% and South Ayrshire down 43%. The Western Isles has seen the largest uplift at 31%, followed by Stirling at 20%.
Wales has bucked the trend across the rest of the UK, with demand levels increasing 13% to 31%, with Newport having the largest levels of buyer demand at 56%, followed by Caerphilly at 47%, Cardiff at 44% and Monmouthshire at 43%.
In Wales Denbighshire at 18% and Gwynedd at 19% have the lowest levels of demand.
However, despite this Denbighshire has seen the largest turnaround in demand this year, up 37%, while Wrexham has seen a fall of 16%.
‘A marginal fall in demand over the last year reflects the tough market conditions that have been prevalent since the Brexit vote and it’s encouraging at least, that buyer demand has remained as high as it currently is,’ said Russell Quirk, eMoov chief executive officer.
‘The diversity of the market means, of course, some areas have performed a lot better than others and the likes of Bristol, Solihull, Rugby and Edinburgh seem undeterred by previous market uncertainty, whilst parts of London for example that were cornerstones of price growth, have seen buyer demand drop right off,’ he pointed out.
‘We’re confident that the market will now start to show signs of normality as we head into 2018 and leave an erratic year behind us. As this previous market sentiment grows, we will no doubt see buyer demand return to previous levels and prices follow suit,’ he added.
