The number of people searching Rightmove for properties with ‘no chain’ is up 110 per cent annually, the property site revealed.
The temporary stamp duty reduction ends on 31 March, with buyers now in a race against the clock to complete before the deadline.
Further analysis of search trends by Rightmove showed there has been a 326 per cent jump in properties listing office or workspace.
There has also been a 90 per cent jump in searches for outbuilding or annex in property listings, as the market is changed by lockdown and changing work-life habits.
And five-bedroom detached properties now sell 30 days more quickly than they did in March, as demand for bigger houses and extra areas to work becomes apparent.
Between June and October this year, 28 per cent more new properties came to market compared to the same period last year.
Rightmove’s director of property data Tim Bannister said: “Over the past eight months, with the requirement for many people to work from home, we’ve seen workspaces evolving from laptops balancing on the end of the bed to fully equipped home offices in the garden shed, and everything in between.
“Many home movers have determined that their current property doesn’t offer enough space for effective home working and have been trading up – either within their local area or looking further afield for that bigger home.
“Agents I’ve been speaking to have said that they’ve been inundated with requests from prospective buyers for properties with an extra reception room, an extra bedroom, or an extra building outside that they can turn into a functioning office.
“Working from home is here to stay for many, perhaps not full-time but certainly a few days a week, and so it looks like the trend of home-hunters settling for a make-shift place to perch a laptop seen back in March has been replaced with a more permanent need for space being added to their property checklist.”
