Homes sales slump

Across the UK an estimated 153,240 residential property sales took place in the second quarter of 2020, reflecting the freezing impact of coronavirus on the housing market.

This was just over half the 291,040 transactions recorded in the first quarter of this year – and marked the lowest quarterly total in records going back to 2005.

The previous low came in the first quarter of 2009, in the aftermath of the last financial crisis, when there were 170,840 transactions.

In recent years, quarterly transactions have remained around the 300,000 mark – until the huge slide in the numbers seen over the past few months.

The latest figures also show around 63,250 transactions took place in June, which was nearly a third (31.7 per cent) higher than in May.

However, this is still more than a third (35.9 per cent) lower than June 2019.

The housing market ground to a near-halt as social distancing measures were introduced earlier this year to help deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

But since then the housing market has been re-opening, with restrictions in England eased from May 13.