There was a significant 20% boost in the number of homeowners listing their properties for sale last month, according to HouseSimple.

The online estate agent said the rise follows a 40% increase in new supply in January.

Total new estate agent listings rose from 56,041 in January to 67,182 in February. However, the number of new sellers coming onto the market was only 2.5% higher than a year earlier.

Over nine out of 10 towns and cities saw an increase in new sellers last month, with Dundee coming top of the pile, following a huge 82.2% rise in new listings.

Edinburgh saw a 75.9% increase in supply in February compared to January, while new listings were up 53.3% in Glasgow. Other towns with a substantial rise in new sellers last month were Hereford (80.3%), Bath (70.9%) and Rotherham (67.1%).

Smaller scale

At the other end of the table, new property supply fell by 16.4% in Rugby, making the Warwickshire town the area that experienced the most significant downturn in property supply in February.

Stevenage (down 14.5%) and Oldham (down 12.2%) also saw a drop off in property supply last month.

Sam Mitchell, CEO of HouseSimple said: “It’s encouraging to see that a healthy January in terms of replenishing stock levels has been followed by a strong February.

“However, before we crack open the champagne, we do need to put this increase into perspective. The number of new sellers marketing last month was actually only 2.5% higher than the corresponding month in 2017.

“This suggests that rather than a sudden rush of sellers, that we have simply seen normal seller numbers in January and February after an extremely slow December.”