It’s been a whole year since the coronavirus turned our worlds upside down. Little did we know we’d still be feeling the effects 12 months on.

But as we start to emerge and restrictions gradually begin to lift, we thought we’d take a look at what affect the virus has had on the property market.

How has the coronavirus affected the property market?

While media headlines were doom and gloom, that certainly wasn’t the case.

For several weeks the property market came to a grinding halt, with 4 out of 5 construction sites closing at the start of the pandemic. But, Boris soon reopened the market with safety measures in place.

But then the switch flipped.

We saw a shift and in March 2020 we predicted demand would return quickly and prices wouldn’t be affected – and Savills pretty much backed us up on that.

While we predicted an increase in demand and prices, nobody could have prepared for just how well the market fared during a global pandemic!

What’s the market looking like now?

According to the January Hometrack report, annual house price growth for 2020 was 4.3%. That’s the highest growth we’ve seen since April 2017.

Liverpool house prices alone grew by 6.3% which was the highest annual growth rate for 15 years!

And it doesn’t stop there.

House price growth is at a decade high across three regions – North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber.

If we take a look at the latest Hometrack report (February 2021), demand for homes was up 13% on the same time last year, with new sales agreed also up 8%. Hometrack also said the spring budget announcement stimulated a whopping 80% rise in buyer demand for property, no doubt down to the extension of the stamp duty holiday.

But while demand is high, supply is still low with new homes listed on the market down 12% on last year.

What would have happened if you’d invested during the coronavirus pandemic?

While many were skeptical about buying property, others saw an advantage.

We carried on sourcing property investment deals throughout the pandemic. And we bagged some of our biggest discounts as developers stood uncertain at the start of lockdown.

To give you an example: we sourced off-plan apartments in Liverpool – just a few miles out of the city centre – in April. Discounted prices were £129,755 and if we take the 6.3% growth on the city’s property prices into consideration, that’s a potential uplift of just over £8,000 in 12 months and with just a 10% deposit.

Now we’ve kept the calculations simple here, but this is a prime example of how you can win big with off-plan property.

We even interviewed one investor on the podcast who, despite everything that went wrong, managed to invest in three properties, 350 miles away whilst in the height of lockdown.

Where do we go from here?

The property market is hot. If you listen to the podcast episode on ‘where are we in the 18-year property cycle’ you’ll see the cycle isn’t broken and we’re entering into a second year of the boom phase.

And if you’ve not taken action yet, it’s not too late. Back in April 2020 we shared ‘seven ways you can come out of the Coronavirus pandemic a stronger investor’. And although we wrote that almost 12 months ago, the points are still just as valid today as we approach the end of the storm.

If you’re yet to invest and are nervous of how the rental market is performing, you can also see how the lettings market has been affected by Coronavirus here.

Now would be a silly time to sit back and do nothing. Even if you’re not yet ready to invest in property, you can make sure your knowledge is up to date. And a great way to do that would be attending one of our FREE webinars we hold every week.

All you need is 30-minutes and you’ll have the best need-to-know information on investing in property, right at your fingertips. Plus you’ll leave with a load of free resources to take and put into action.

Book your free virtual slot and we’ll see you there.