At Zoopla, we have the data and insights to help you make sense of the property market and to keep you properly informed whenever it’s time to move home.
We’ve crunched the key numbers from 2020 to bring you this at-a-glance guide to what happened in the housing market this year - and what it might mean for 2021.
2020 in numbers
1
We used our data to find the top ten search terms used by home-hunters in 2020. Number one was “garden”. Discover the other nine features home-hunters wanted most in 2020.
1.7%
Average rents rose by just under 2% across England in the 12 months to September 2020, excluding London where rents fell by 5%. Find out more about the emergence of this two-speed market, and why prices are behaving differently inside and outside the capital.
3.9%
The rate of house price growth. High levels of buyer demand combined with a shortage of homes for sale pushed annual house price growth up to a three-year high, taking the average value of a home to £222,900, according to our latest House Price Index.
5%
The deposit a first-time buyer needs to qualify for the new Help to Buy equity loan scheme which opened for applications at the end of 2020. The government effectively lends first-time buyers 20% (or 40% in London) of the value of their home as a lump sum interest-free for five years, to enable them to buy a new-build home with an affordable 75% (or 55% in London) loan-to-value mortgage. Here’s everything you need to knowabout Help to Buy and how to benefit.
6
The number of weeks the property market was closed after lockdown started in March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. We estimated in mid-May that some 373,000 property sales had been put on hold during lockdown - with a total value of £82bn. This pent-up demand has helped fuel the demand we’ve seen in housing over the subsequent months.
20
The number of days it takes for homes to sell in the fastest-moving housing market in the UK. Our research identified 19 other locations where properties sell within 30 days. Find out where they are and what the average home costs there.
£27.81
The amount the average UK property increased in value by per day in 2020, a substantial increase from £8.64 per day in 2019. Find out more about how much properties went up in your area.
63%
Ryedale in North Yorkshire is England’s most popular rural property hotspot with sales having soared 63% in the past six months. The pandemic appears to have prompted a surge in buyers leaving cities for the countryside, perhaps in pursuit of a different way of life. Find out the top 10 rural regions people are moving to.
100
The average number of days it takes for an accepted offer on a home to reach completion of a home sale.
£250
The average price per square foot of a UK property, as of November 2020.
£10,177
The value the average UK property climbed by in 2020. Despite the rollercoaster year caused by Covid, and the subsequent lockdowns, average housing values increased in all parts of the country in 2020. Properties in England benefited from the highest increase in value at £11,037, followed by Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.Find out just how much the value of properties in your area changed.
£15,000
The maximum amount you could have saved yourself on stamp duty land tax in England in 2020 thanks to the stamp duty holiday announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last July. Don’t worry, there’s still time to make that saving in 2021 but get in there quickly.
£35.9m
The average property value on the most expensive street in Britain in 2020. Find out where it is and discover the other priciest roads where average homes cost tens of millions.
£62bn
There have been fewer homes bought and sold this year than in 2019, but the value of sales agreed in 2020 are worth £62bn more than the total agreed the previous year. Sales were agreed on a total of £300bn-worth of properties in 2020 perhaps due to the rush to move post-lockdown and the fact that existing homeowners are trading up, meaning the average value of a transaction was higher.
£9.06tn
The total value of UK housing stock in 2020 according to our data.
What can we expect from 2021?
1%
Looking ahead, our research and insight team expects annual house price growth to reach 5% in February, before slowing to 1% by the end of 2021, as demand starts to weaken during the second half of the year.
1.1m
Buoyed by a strong start to the year before the stamp duty holiday ends, our research and insights team expects the number of completed transactions in 2021 to be broadly similar to this year at just over a million.