Homebuyer intent is back on the rise pointing to a ‘resilient housing market’, according to research carried out by Legal Bricks and Access Legal.

The analysis found property-related searches on Google for key terms including Rightmove’, ‘Zoopla’, ‘homes near me’ and ‘new build homes near me’ was up 23% in January this year, compared to November 2022.

Searches rose by 49% for ‘Zoopla’, 23% for ‘Rightmove’ and between 20% and 40% for ‘new build homes’, ‘detached homes’ and ‘semi-detached homes’.

While search activity was down overall year-on-year compared to January 2022, the figures are still better than expected.

Legal Bricks founder and Access Legal commercial director Mike Connelly says the data is a ‘good indication of a resilient housing market’.

“Early this year there was a lot of doom and gloom around the property market outlook for 2023. Yet when we have been talking with our conveyancing customers, many say activity has recovered to pre-pandemic levels after a lull at the end of 2022.

“Our research into typical property-related searches indicates that people in the UK are looking at their own situations and making their own decisions on their next property move without being led too much by the noise around the market. It’s good news for conveyancers who will be hoping spring and beyond is positive for their caseloads.”

It follows today’s market data from Zoopla, which found that while UK house annual price growth had slowed to 4.1% in March, the market is faring better than expected with sales on track for one million transactions this year.