The staggered reopening of housing markets across countries and the added impetus from the stamp duty holiday means levels of demand and new sales are expected to remain above pre lockdown levels over the next 1-2 months.

There has been much speculation about the long-term outlook for housing demand in cities. COVID has boosted demand outside the major cities but Zoopla believes this is more a one-off factor than a long-term ‘seismic shift’ in home buyer attitudes.

The stamp duty changes in England and Northern Ireland have delivered an immediate boost to sales in London. Zoopla’s data shows new sales agreed have increased by over a quarter (27%) in London where the greatest benefits of the changes