Record property sales and high buyer demand mean that properties that would normally languish for weeks on the market are being snapped up in just days, particularly in areas of high demand.

In the eloquent words of famous TV property agent, Henry Pryor, “Homes that look like the last turkey in the Christmas shop window are flying off the shelves at the moment.” Dire predictions of a house price crash at the end of June (when the first Stamp Duty holiday deadline saw the nil-rate threshold fall from £500,000 to £250,000) have proven to be unfounded. In fact, August saw the second largest monthly house price rise in 15 years5 .

A seller’s market – for now?

Driving house prices further upwards over the past months has been the ongoing imbalance between the number of buyers looking for a new home and the number of properties coming to market. Competition for each property has doubled since the pandemic first hit6 , leaving desperate buyers scrabbling for what would usually be the dregs at the bottom of the housing pile.

Early signs suggest that this imbalance may soon be righted, however; the number of new listings on Rightmove in the first two weeks of September was 14% up compared with the last two weeks of August.

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5 Nationwide, 2021, 6 Rightmove, 2021