Rightmove PLC(LON:RMV) says June was almost certainly a record for house sales as buyers rushed to beat the end of the stamp duty holiday window.
The online portal added that prices rose by 0.7% between 13 June to 10 July, with asking prices 6.7% higher over the past six months.
That was the largest four-week increase since 2007 and means average prices have hit records in each of the latest four months with a house in Britain now costing £338,447.
Stamp duty starts to rise again from July as the holiday for purchases below £500,000 starts to ratchet up again towards the end of September when it ends finally, but Rightmove does not expect things to slow down much.
Rightmove, which claims to advertise 95% of homes for sale in Britain, said a dearth of new properties was likely to support the market.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property data, noted: “Prospective purchasers have the lowest choice of homes for sale that we’ve ever recorded, continuing price rises, and stretched affordability”.
“We predict that the number of completed sales will be the highest ever seen in a single month when June’s data is released by HMRC later this week.
“This means it’s likely that the first half of 2021 has seen a record number of moves when compared with the first six months of any other year, induced by the pandemic’s side-effect of a new focus on what one’s home needs to provide.
“Demand has also been boosted by the ongoing creation of new households, and property being seen as an asset to hold, with historically low returns from many other forms of investment.”
The record for house sales in the first half of a year is 795,000 in 2007, but Rightmove believes the figures this time might top 800,000.
It estimates there is a shortfall of 225,000 properties using long term trends as a comparison.