Homes are spending more than eight months on the market on average before being sold amid Covid. They also need eighteen viewings before they sell.
1 per cent of vendors fear catching Covid while showing buyers around, the poll by Atomik Research and home buying service Spring found. In February 2019, Zoopla estimated homes took an average of 50 days to sell.
UK house prices are 6.5per cent higher than a year ago - the sharpest rise for nearly six years the Nationwide has said.
The acceleration came as the housing market remained robust despite the economic effects of the pandemic, the lender added. House prices were 0.9 per cent higher in November than in October, with the average property valued at £229,721, the Nationwide said.
That is the fourth month in a row that house prices have set a new record. Prices have been climbing thanks to strong demand post lockdown coupled with the Chancellor's stamp duty holiday.
A post-lock down stampede for home loans has seen Britain's lenders approve the most mortgages since 2007. Bank of England data showed that mortgage approvals for house purchases hit 97,532 in October, up from 92,091 in September and higher than all forecasts.
Analysts called the rush for mortgages a 'stampede'. The figure was about ten times higher than the trough of 9,400 in May.
The housing market has gone in to top gear due to the stamp duty holiday and a high demand for bigger properties post lockdown.
Average mortgage rates are soaring, Bank of England figures show. The average two-year fixed rate for borrowers with a 10 pc deposit jumped from 2.05 pc in January to 3.55 pc in October. Buyers with a 40 pc deposit saw rates creep up from 1.3 pc to 1.47 pc.
Boris Johnson has revealed that his government will bring forward proposals to introduce fixed-rate long-term mortgages to enable first-time buyers to purchase homes via 95% LTV mortgages.
The Prime Minister claimed that the initiative would add two million owner-occupiers to the housing market and fulfil one of his key party's 2019 election manifest promises.
He said during his speech to the Conservative's virtual national conference: "For most people it is still true that the overwhelming instinct is to buy. But for many of them simply can't, not because they can't afford the mortgage but because they can't afford the deposit. The disgraceful truth is that home ownershiplevels in this country have plummeted and that many are forced to pay through the nose to rent a home they can't truly love or make their own. This policy will create two million more owner occupiers - the biggest expansion since the 1980's of home ownership, to every part of the country."
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