House prices grew 6.1% on a yearly basis in August, shows Zoopla’s latest house price index, with demand tracking 19% higher than a year previous.

Coupled with this increased hunger for properties, the report adds, is a 5% drop in new supply flow on the year.

Zoopla also says that the 18-month trend of lowering demand in London is now reversing, with 14% growth in interest in the city on a monthly basis, which translates into “A 25% rise in demand for houses… and a 6% rise in demand for flats, as life continues to return towards normality.”

The average house price across the UK is now £235,000.

The report highlights the fact that, despite the stamp duty holiday finishing completely at the end of September, there is “little evidence” of a change in appetite for property.

It says this shows wider trends in the market have driven activity more so than the said stamp duty savings – “trends that we believe have further to run into Q4”.

Therefore, Zoopla expects house prices to continue growing “although lower than current levels” until “market activity returns to more normal levels” in early 2022, when supply improves.

Keystone Property Finance chief executive David Whittaker agrees with this broader point. He says: “While the [stamp duty holiday] scheme has no doubt pumped up demand, there are few signs that demand is waning now the government is reining in its efforts to stimulate activity.

“The big test for the market will come after this week, when the stamp duty holiday is to be removed entirely.

“While that could lead to a slight cooling of activity, this is still a very strong market and we expect transactions, house prices and demand to remain strong as we head into 2022.”

Regarding activity in London, Chestertons head of sales Cory Askew comments: “London is seeing a return of office workers and steady influx of international buyers.

“Sellers have taken note of this and, with a higher demand for properties, don’t feel the need to lower their asking price.

“Although this time of year is traditionally quieter for the property market, August’s performance has actually outperformed the five-year average in terms of buyer enquiries and viewings.”

He details: “Buyer enquiries were up 18.2% with viewings up 8.6% compared to the five-year average performance for the month of August.

“[We] saw a 51% decrease in the number of sellers willing to drop their asking prices in August vs July this year.

“A key contributing factor is the growing demand from buyers which has already led to August’s property sales being a staggering 54% higher than in July.”