The property market in 2020 has been unpredictable. The pause button was hit and thanks largely to the stamp duty cut, instead of prices heading downwards, they've rocketed higher.
As predictions about what the pandemic would do to property values were proved wrong, potential buyers and sellers have looked to price indexes to provide some hard data to cling onto amid all the speculation.
Whichever one you look at, prices in 2020 increased substantially compared to 2019 as the market bounced back strongly after the first lockdown.
Halifax has said prices grew by 7.6 percent in the year to November, reaching £253,243.
Nationwide reported similarly high 7.3 percent growth - the fastest for six years - and said the average property was £11,000 more expensive in December than at start of the pandemic.
At the other end of the scale, property website Zoopla recorded 3.9 percent growth and a high of £222,900.
Halifax has said prices grew by 7.6 percent in the year to November, reaching £253,243.
Nationwide reported similarly high 7.3 percent growth - the fastest for six years - and said the average property was £11,000 more expensive in December than at start of the pandemic.
At the other end of the scale, property website Zoopla recorded 3.9 percent growth and a high of £222,900.
There were several key moments in 2020 when it came to house prices:
- With the year starting off with a ‘Boris bounce’ in asking prices, vendors were buoyed by the conservative victory in the general election in December 2019. Zoopla noted a 3.6 percent uptick in January 2020.
- Despite this, Nationwide predicted that prices would stay broadly flat throughout the year of 2020.
- Then came Covid. With the housing market being shut it was estimated that prices would drop around 20 percent.
- Whilst house property prices dropped during the late spring and early summer, they remained higher than they were in 2019.
- Rishi Sunak’s announced a stamp duty holiday for homes worth up to £500,000 which added fuel to the fire.
For the remainder of the year house prices continued to climb. Now in 2021 in another lockdown and the stamp duty holiday end date looming, the housing marketing is yet again in a year of uncertainty and predictions.