According to Zoopla, demand for housing is now 54 per cent higher than at the start of March, as pent-up demand is returning to the property market.
However, the firm warned this was likely to be part of a one-off boost bringing a “new cohort of would-be movers into the housing market in the last four weeks since the market reopened”.
It noted that sales were higher across all price bands nationally but demand for housing had increased at a higher rate for higher value homes as buyers looked at trading up for more space or moving to a better location.
This trend was also typified with the London market quieter as people look to escape the capital.
Nationally, £1m home sales were 16 per cent higher than in early March, although they accounted for just three per cent of overall sales agreed in the last week.
Perhaps encouragingly, the average asking price of homes being marked as sold subject to contract on Zoopla in the last week was six per cent higher than a year ago in the week to June 7.
This may suggest that a predicted collapse in house prices may not materialise, or may not be as sharp as feared.
Short-term boost
Zoopla director of research and insight Richard Donnell (pictured) highlighted that the rebound over the last month was not solely explained by a return of pent-up demand.
But he added that this was likely to just be a positive short-term market boost.
“Covid has brought a whole new group of would-be buyers into the housing market. Activity has grown across all pricing levels, but the higher the value of a home, the greater the increase in supply and sales as people look to trade up,” Donnell said.
“Higher asking prices for newly agreed sales means that house price indices may not register immediate price falls.
“Lower asking prices for homes sold over the lockdown period may drag down indices over May, but this new data suggests house price growth is set to remain positive in the next two months.
“We still believe that this spike in demand will be short-lived as the economic impacts of Covid start to feed through into market sentiment and levels of market activity in 2020 H2,” he added.
