Homeowners are racing to put their properties on the market before house prices fall.
The number of homes being valued by estate agents has shot up as vendors try to sell at the peak of the market before it turns, according to property website Rightmove.
The number of home valuation requests in the week of June 20 was almost a quarter more than during the same week last year, it found. It was the highest rate since January.
This was the highest total recorded since May 2021, when homeowners rushed to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday before it was tapered at the end of June.
Sellers are rushing to list their properties while house prices are still at record highs before buyer demand disappears. In the last two weeks, the number of new properties coming to market was up 14pc compared to the same time last year, according to Rightmove.
Analysts have downgraded their house price forecasts as successive interest rate rises bring soaring mortgage costs and fears of a global recession loom.
By July, the five successive interest rate rises since December will mean a mortgage on a typical property will cost £3,600 more per year than it did in November, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics, a research firm. As a result, it expects house prices will fall by 2pc in the last six months of this year.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research, another analysts, has forecast a 3.4pc house price drop in 2023. The worst of this will be concentrated between April and June next year, when values will fall by 5.8pc, it said.
The rise in the number of properties being listed will ease the supply crunch which has underpinned house prices.
Tim Bannister, of Rightmove, said: “In recent months, we have reported a slight easing of the market and the pace of price growth compared to the exceptional levels of last year, and now we are seeing signs of some of the pressure on stock easing too.”