PHOTO: Property sale and rental signs on a London street in October. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
Property rebound predicted to continue as buyers rush to complete before stamp duty holiday ends
More than 100,000 additional house sales are expected during the first three months of 2021, as the rebound in the property market continues and buyers rush to complete their purchases before the end of the stamp duty holiday.
The number of new sales being agreed remains 38% higher than it was a year ago, according to property website Zoopla. It predicts the housing market will be the busiest before Christmas than it has been for over a decade.
The UK housing market has rebounded since the summer because of pent-up demand following the first UK-wide lockdown, and after the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, decided in July to introduce a stamp duty holiday on properties up to £500,000 until March 2021.
The boom in property sales since the summer has been felt most strongly in London and southern England, where 7% more sales were recorded than in the previous year.
The flurry of interest from potential buyers has pushed up house prices by 3.5%, the highest level of growth for almost three years, and is set to increase further by the end of 2020.
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