This year is set to end with demand up 33% compared to December 2019, according to Zoopla.

The property portal said the pandemic has driven a ‘seismic search for space and quality of location’, with 40% more buyers across the whole of 2020 compared to 2019. And that’s despite closure of the UK housing market during lockdowns.

High activity at the more expensive end of the market means the value of homes selling is 26% higher than in 2019, with the value of sales agreed in 2020 up £62bn on the previous year.

And property prices are up too.

The fastest growth in the price of housing at a city level is in Manchester (5.7%) followed by Leeds, Nottingham and Liverpool all at 5%.

But while prices are rising fastest in the North, market activity has been concentrated in London, the South East and Eastern England.

Demand rising faster than supply

2020 has recorded 9% more sales agreed than 2019, although with transactions taking three to four months to complete, a proportion will spill over into 2021.

While demand is up 40% over 2020, the flow of new supply has only increased by 4%, creating a supply and demand imbalance, and pushing house prices up.

The rebound in sales has been strongest in the South East and Eastern England, where they are more than 20% higher than in 2019.

The value of mortgage approvals for home purchases in October was up 68% on the previous year – resulting from sales agreed two to three months prior, at the peak of the rebound.

Richard Donnell, director of research & insight at Zoopla, said: “The housing market is ending 2020 strongly with more buyers looking for a home than this time last year.

“The ‘once in a lifetime re-assessment of housing’ kick-started by the pandemic has further to run in our view and this will support demand into 2021. With a long Christmas weekend, and many households isolating in smaller groups, we expect interest in housing to be stronger than usual ahead of the traditional Boxing Day bounce when interest in housing jumps and the next tranche of would-be buyers.

“While market activity is being boosted by latent demand unlocked by the pandemic, the housing market is not immune to economic forces and rising unemployment. Economic pressures are already impacting in parts of the market, reducing the volume and share of sales in less wealthy areas, for example.”