House price growth has now hit a three-year high as demand for housing has surged by a whopping 40 per cent compared to 2019, while new supply has edged up by just four per cent, according to Zoopla.
The property site attributed the spike in sales and demand to a change in lifestyle aspirations alongside the stamp duty holiday.
House price growth is now at 3.9 per cent – up from 1.3 per cent this time last year.
The fastest rises have been recorded in Manchester where values have jumped 5.7 per cent, followed by Leeds, Nottingham and Liverpool all at above five per cent.
Affordability is not restricting house price growth as much in these northern cities, Zoopla said.
However, the greatest increase in sales agreed has been concentrated in the South East and Eastern England in 2020, where sales agreed are more than 20 per cent higher than last year – compared to nine per cent nationally.
Richard Donnell, director of research and insight at Zoopla, said: “The housing market is ending 2020 strongly with more buyers looking for a home than this time last year. More sales at higher prices have boosted the value of homes selling in 2020, led by a strong rebound in southern England.
“Looking ahead to 2021 we expect house price growth to reach five per cent by mid Q1 and then slow to one per cent by the end of the year as demand starts to weaken over 2021 H2.
“The number of completed housing transactions will be buoyed by a strong Q1 with sales agreed over 2020 Q4 completing early next year. Overall, we expect the number of completed housing transactions to match 2020 levels at 1.1m.”
