Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the housing market; and what estimate he has made of the number of completed house sales in each month since the beginning of the outbreak.

The COVID-19 outbreak has had an significant impact on the housing market and the Government has taken unprecedented measures to help those facing challenges. To support the property sector and home buyers the Government has issued guidance to help people move safely, and temporarily cut Stamp Duty Land Tax for home buyers until the end of the financial year.

According to the property website Rightmove, the housing market had its busiest month in July in more than 10 years, with the highest number of monthly sales agreed in Britain.

HMRC publishes monthly property transactions at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/monthly-property-transactions-completed-in-the-uk-with-value-40000-or-above.

The Nationwide house price index reported that annual house price growth picked up to 5 per cent in September, the highest rate since Sep 2016: https://www.nationwide.co.uk/-/media/MainSite/documents/about/house-price-index/2020/Sep_Q3_2020.pdf .