GROWING numbers of home-owners are moving into rented properties following a house sale, according to research.

Estate agent Hamptons has found that in the South East, 9.4 per cent of homes are being let after home-owners sell up.

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It comes as more sellers decide to rent amid a lack of choice of properties available to buy.

In the UK, ten per cent of new tenancies this year were taken out by former home-owners who have sold up - the highest proportion since 2016.

Hamptons said the numbers increased as the phasing-out of the stamp duty holiday approached, but have remained high.

And this is also happening in Oxford.

David Wilkins, director of sales at JCP Estate Agents which has branches in Cowley Road and Walton Street said: "Some homeowners who sold up a few months ago in what was a very buoyant market where their buyers wanted to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday - those homeowners I think felt they were getting a premium because of the stamp duty holiday, and therefore thought it was good to sell up and just go into rented accommodation without having anything to move directly into.

"I think there's a general conception that prices have been rising and as a consequence people don't necessarily want to go into rented accommodation long term because they feel that they'll miss the market, and miss out on those price increases.

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"I do think there are people who sold up earlier in the year to buy and were paying a good price for their house and those homeowners felt they wanted that sale to go through, so they just went into rented accommodation so that they couldn't hold up the sale process."

With fewer properties on the market available to buy, sellers struggling to find somewhere to purchase have increasingly turned to the rental market, Hamptons said.

Having nowhere to sell may also put some previous home-owners in a stronger position to pounce when they find the right property to buy.

Mr Wilkins added: "There's a lack of stock generally this year and I think that's to do with Covid - with people just being nervous about moving and worried about job security. And that was a contributing factor in prices rising in the property stock that was available, because demand was very high for those houses."

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Halifax revealed last week that Oxford is the second least affordable city in the UK, with people now needing to earn an average salary of £39,220 to live in the city.

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