Am I competing with more sellers than usual right now?

In July the story was a crowded market with very few new sellers joining it. September changed that, and the first figures for the month, published on 1 October, confirm it: more homes are for sale than a year ago while fewer sales are being agreed.

For anyone selling now, the practical question is not whether there is more competition. It is which homes you are really up against, and what buyers can afford when they compare them.

How many homes am I actually up against?

Available stock is the number of homes on the market at a given moment. Yopa's analysis, published on 17 September 2026, found it rose 16% in England in two weeks, with some of the sharpest increases in Rutland (35%), the Isle of Wight (34%) and Greater London (20%).

Is this a normal September, or something bigger?

A jump in listings after the school holidays happens most years, so the direction is normal. What is different in 2026 is the backdrop: new sellers are arriving while prices are soft and borrowing has become more expensive.

A net balance is the share of surveyors reporting a rise minus the share reporting a fall. The 0% for new instructions in August means as many surveyors saw more homes coming to market as saw fewer, a clear change from the steep falls of early summer.

What changed at the start of October?

The September indices landed on 1 October, and they point the same way. Zoopla found 5% more homes for sale than a year earlier and 9% fewer sales agreed, with the average home at £273,000 and prices up just 0.8% over the year. Nationwide reported a 0.2% fall in September, its fourth monthly fall in five months.

• More choice for buyers: a larger stock of homes and fewer agreed sales means each buyer is weighing more options.
• Less buying power: Zoopla estimates the average buyer is paying about £150 a month more on their mortgage than at the start of the year.
• A split market: Zoopla reported flat prices falling in 9 of 11 UK regions, while houses held up better, so what you are selling matters as much as where.

Why are so many homes coming onto the market now?

• Owners who held back through a soft summer have chosen September, when buyers traditionally return after the holidays.
• Many want to agree a sale in time to move before Christmas, which usually means listing in September or early October.
• Some owners whose fixed mortgage deals are ending are selling rather than refixing at higher rates.

Does a crowded market mean I have to drop my price?

Not automatically. It means the price has to be right at the point you launch, because a busy market punishes a wrong opening price far more than a quiet one does.

Borrowing costs sharpen that point. At 5.73%, a buyer paying about £1,438 a month on a 25-year mortgage can borrow roughly £229,000, against about £250,000 at March's 4.84%. Buyers comparing a dozen similar homes will favour the ones priced for what they can borrow today.

• A new listing gets its strongest run of viewings in the first two to three weeks, and that window is spent, not saved, if the price is wrong.
• Buyers scanning a portal now see your home next to many other fresh listings, so presentation and price do the work together.
• Agreed prices are still drifting down on the RICS measure, so a high launch price followed by a reduction costs you the early interest and the money.

You are not competing with every home on the market. You are competing with the handful a buyer shortlists after an evening of scrolling.

What should I do differently in a market like this?

• Ask every agent who values your home which recent local sales sit behind their number, rather than local asking prices.
• Ask how many of their listings in the past six months sold at or near the asking price, and how many were reduced.
• Agree the launch price and a review date together, so any reduction is a plan rather than a reaction.
• Get the photography, floorplan and description finished before the listing goes live, because the first fortnight counts most.
• When an offer comes, ask where the buyer is with their mortgage, because repricing hits buyers who have not yet applied.
• Compare valuations side by side before you pick an agent, because a number without a strategy tells you very little.

ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents. In a market with this much stock, the agent who reads your street correctly is worth more than the agent who quotes the biggest number, and seeing their answers together is how you tell them apart.