The number of home owners requesting an instant online valuation of their property through estate agency websites more than doubled from 37,400 in December to 83,158 in January.

The figures come from requests submitted through ValPal, a network of 800 agents with 4,000 offices.

The 122 per cent surge in valuation enquiries has been attributed to the impact of the General Election result bringing certainty over Brexit, on top of the usual seasonal uplift in activity that tends to occur in the New Year.

January’s total is the highest monthly number of online valuation requests since October 2018 when the figure peaked at 102,999.

It is also 83 per cent higher than the 45,565 valuation queries submitted in January 2019.

Over the past 12 months, requests averaged between 40,000 and 60,000 a month. 

ValPal director Craig Vile says: “Despite reports of increased confidence immediately after the election, it’s clear that January was when the market resurgence really took off with huge numbers of sellers and landlords requesting instant online valuations from our agents.

“The election came less than two weeks before Christmas, so it’s likely many consumers waited until the New Year kicked off before acting on their interest – in many cases after a period of planning and discussion over the holidays.”