2026 has started with a huge surge in homes for sale according to the leading portals.
Rightmove:
The average price of homes newly listed on the market for sale has increased by 2.8% in just one month.
Rightmove reports a rise equivalent to £9,893 on the average British homes.
This is the largest increase in the month of January in Rightmove’s 25 years of House Price Index reporting.
It is also the largest month-on-month price increase of any month since June 2015.
After underperforming against historical averages in eight out of twelve months during 2025, national average property prices are now 0.5% higher than at this time last year.
January’s recovery brings average asking prices close to where they were in August 2025, as market sentiment rebounds from the rumours and uncertainty around the November Budget.
However, price trends in regions and local markets across Britain are more volatile.
While most regions rise in price this January, the East Midlands and Scotland buck the trend with price falls.
The portal says a recovery in property prices is a good sign for the health of the market at the start of the year, it warns that sellers mustn’t get carried away.
The number of available homes on the market, and therefore the number of other sellers to compete with, is still at its highest level for this time of year since 2014.
Additionally, a third of homes already on the market are having their asking price reduced.
Therefore, sellers need to strike a balance between price ambition and market realism when setting their asking price to give themselves the best chance of finding a buyer and getting their home sold.
Rightmove says in the two weeks after Christmas Day, buyer demand, as measured by the number of people contacting agents to enquire about homes for sale, rose by 57%.
And the number of homes newly listed for sale rose by 81% compared with the two weeks before Christmas Day.
This illustrates how the much-hyped Boxing Day bounce kick-started the return of home-movers to market.
Rightmove recorded its busiest ever Boxing Day for visits to its platform.
And over the last week, buyer demand is lower than last year, when buyer activity was boosted by some buyers trying to find a property and complete their purchase before stamp duty rose in England in April 2025.
However, buyer demand is in line with 2024.
The portal says it’s an encouraging early snapshot, and as the start of the year progresses it will become clearer if this momentum is maintained into the peak Spring selling season.
Zoopla:
The average agent now has some 32 homes for sale, the highest level in early January since 2018, says Zoopla.
However, not all these homes are brand new to the market.
Some 33% were previously listed last year and have been brought back to market following the uncertainty that reduced market activity over the final quarter of 2025.
London and South East register most homes for sale compared to a year ago
The growth in the number of homes for sale compared to a year ago is greatest in London, up 16% on last year followed by the South East, up 9%.
Southern regions were most impacted by Budget uncertainty which stalled sales in the final months of 2025 meaning more homes carried over into 2026.
More supply is boosting choice for home buyers and keeping price inflation in check across southern England where prices are lower by up to 1% in the last year.
Across other regions of the UK, supply is broadly the same as last year which is generating a degree of scarcity.
This is supporting price inflation with house prices higher by up to 3% in the North West.
Buyer demand rebounds but falls 10% short of strong start to 2025
More homes for sale mean more buyers looking to secure a sale and move home in 2026.
Zoopla’s latest data shows a strong rebound in buyer demand post Christmas which is in line with previous years and tracking in line with the early weeks of 2024.
The rebound in demand to date is tracking 10% behind the very strong start to 2025 when the ending of stamp duty reliefs and lower mortgage rates provided additional stimulus to the level of demand for homes.
However, buyer demand at the start of 2026 is over 20% ahead of the start to 2023 and the pre-pandemic years (2017-2019) showing a sustainable increase in demand that Zoopla expects to increase further in the coming week.
This will support continued growth in housing sales over 2026, says the portal.
Nationwide:
Nationwide says that improving affordability last year helped more first-time buyers onto the property ladder.
Its latest Housing Affordability Report shows that slower house price growth, rising incomes and lower mortgage costs all played a part.
The building society says price rises have remained well below earnings growth while mortgage rates have continued to fall.
As a result, first-time buyers accounted for a higher share of purchases than the long-run average, with activity around 20% higher than in 2024.
Nationwide also says that high loan-to-value borrowing also increased, with lending to buyers putting down deposits of 15% or less reaching its strongest level in more than 10 years.
The organisation’s benchmark measure shows a buyer on the average UK income purchasing a typical first-time buyer home with a 20% deposit would face monthly mortgage payments equivalent to 32% of take-home pay.
That’s slightly above the long-term norm of 30%, but far below the 48% peak recorded in 1989.
The report also points to continued improvement in the first-time buyer house price to earnings ratio, now at 4.7 and marginally below its 20-year average.
While this suggests saving for a deposit has become slightly easier, Nationwide warns renters still face significant challenges following sharp rental increases in recent years.