The supply of rental housing stock on letting agents’ books fell in March, to the lowest level since the start of last year, reveals the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) March Private Rental Sector (PRS) report.

Demand also dropped in March; ARLA agents had 33 prospective tenants registered per branch on average, down 11% from 37 in February. This stands below the figure recorded in March last year – when agents registered 36 on average.

Supply has also fallen year on year. In March 2015, the average number of properties managed per branch was 192, which is down 12% this year with just 169 rental properties managed per branch - the lowest level since records began in January 2015.

In Scotland agents had on average 273 properties on their books, while Yorkshire and Humberside had 207 properties recorded on average per branch. In London however, agents had just 122 properties on their books per branch.

David Cox, MD at ARLA said:“We don’t expect falling supply to stop here – the recent stamp duty changes are very likely to cause supply to decrease even further, as landlords withdraw from the market.”