More and more people are “letting to buy”, an agent has said, and are hanging on to their homes when they move on to another.

David Cantell, of Cantell & Co in Richmond, Surrey, said this is severely drying up the supply of property on the market in his part of the world.

He said that since January 2014, his own firm, which operates in an affluent part of the country, has seen 27% of homes going to first-time buyers; 9% of buyers had sold their homes in order to fund their next purchase; but an astonishing 64% were keeping their homes when buying another.

He said: “With more and more second steppers choosing to hold on to their first purchase when trading up, instead of one house causing another to come to the sales market, we are seeing buyers preferring to hold on to the asset and rent it long term, finally cashing in as a retirement/pension fund.

“We are also seeing more new buy-to-let investors entering the market making purchases without a related sale for the very same reason.

“Historically one sales property coming to the market would prompt another sales property to come to the market.

“With this no longer always the case, it’s unlikely the previously seen levels of for sale property available will return.

“Ultimately this will drive prices higher, increases will fluctuate and we will see spikes, but over the longer term they will have to remain sustainable.

“The losers in all of the above are the consumers having less choice in a more competitive market, and first-time buyers in particular are set to find it increasingly difficult to enter the market.

“Yes, there will be an increase in rental property available, but this at best will meet increased rental demand so steady rent rises are very likely to continue.”