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PHOTO: Average house prices are forecast to be 13.8% lower in 2021 than in 2020

U.K. property prices are expected to tumble by the end of the year and into the first half of the next as the country’s myriad economy-supporting measures introduced during the coronavirus pandemic come to an end, according to a report Monday from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

Average house prices are forecast to be 13.8% lower in 2021 than in 2020, the economics consultants said.

“Throughout August, the U.K. housing market defied gravity,” according to the firm.

Prices last month were 5.2% higher than the same period last year, the strongest annual growth since late 2016, according to a separate report last week from Halifax. The increase pushed the average price of a property to a record £245,747 (US$316,107).

Underpinning those increases is the activity stemming from the release of pent-up demand that built during lockdown. Close to 150,000 transactions were postponed between March and June as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to CEBR.

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