The appetite for houses in the UK was 65% higher in the four weeks to 20 March against the five-year average, shows that latest house price index from Zoopla.

Demand for family homes specifically was especially high, Zoopla adds, saying it was “more than twice as high as usual for Q1”.

At the same time, new supply of homes for sale was 5% higher than its five-year average, leading Hargreaves Lansdown senior personal finance analyst Sarah Coles to state that this shifting balance of supply and demand, “is making life slightly easier for buyers, and has boosted the number of sales agreed, but it hasn’t yet started to hurt sellers.

She adds: “Buyers are still outnumbering sellers, and the stock of homes is still 42% below the five-year average.”

“However,” Coles says, “it’s worth keeping an eye on whether this balance continues to shift. There’s every chance it will, as soaring bills and prices – alongside rising mortgage costs – convince more people that now is not the time to over-stretch their finances. We’re expecting buyer demand to slow as we go through 2022.”

Coles continues: “The question is how far the balance will shift. If it moves significantly, we could end up in a buyers’ market for the first time in a while.”

The data shows that house prices rose 8.1% in February, which compares to a growth rate of 8.4% in January. This takes the average house price value to £245,200.

Zoopla believes that, in the short term, “strong buyer demand will lead to higher levels of activity.”

And Zoopla head of research Gráinne Gilmore echoes Coles in saying: “We expect the economic headwinds, including the rising cost of living, higher mortgage rates and global uncertainty to act as a brake on house price growth which we forecast will ease to more sustainable levels over the course of 2022.

“It will also mark a return to transactions at levels seen pre-pandemic, resulting in 1.2 million transactions this year.”