The number of new homes being up for sale has slumped to the lowest level for more than a decade, according to new figures from Rightmove.
The property website said it has experienced record search activity, with more than 44 million property searches carried out by its users during the first ten days of 2012 - up 27 per cent on the same period last year.
However, this "pent-up demand" has coincided with a large drop in the number of new homesellers, with UK estate agents on average marketing less than one new property per week per branch, the lowest since records began in 2000.
Agents said prospective sellers are being put off by a combination of a shortage of confidence, lack of choice of property to buy and restrictive mortgage lending.
The Rightmve figures also showed that there is less available housing stock already on the market compared to the same period last year.
Miles Shipside, director of the property site, said there was evidence of a "spring bounce" in the asking price of homes coming to market, highlighted by a 1.4 per cent increase in the first week of 2012.
But he warned the market was becoming increasingly fragmented, with hotspots and blackspots among different property types in the same geographical area.
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