The  number of completed property sales recorded by conveyancing firms in England and Wales plunged to 82,385 in the second quarter, the lowest since records began in 2011.

Analysis of official Land Registry figures by property data firm Search Acumen shows that completions in the second quarter were also 65 per cent lower than in Q1 as the pandemic put the market into lockdown.

April saw just 440 completed sales – less than 1 per cent of the 55,381 total in March.

However, May saw completions rebound to 25,459 and June saw them recover to pre-pandemic levels at 56,486. 

The number of active conveyancing firms dropped from 3,928 in Q1 to an unprecedented low of 317 in April, before recovering to 3,735 in June.

The average firm registered just 34 transactions over Q2, compared to 60 in Q1 2020, a drop of more than 40 per cent.

Search Acumen says that delays to the registration of property sales as a result of lockdown will have contributed to the low transaction numbers, on top of the months of inactivity when home moves were put on hold..

The number of active firms similarly recovered from an all-time low of 317 in April to 3,735 in June, although this remained lower than the average of 3,928 who were active in Q1. In addition, only 75 firms averaged 50 or more transactions a month in Q2 compared with 338 in the previous quarter.

Among the biggest 1,000 firms, the top ten were most protected from the market freeze despite seeing their average quarterly transactions drop 56 per cent from 2,826 in Q1 2020 to 1,244 in Q2 2020. 

Those firms ranked 101-200th were worst affected as their transactions plummeted 69 per cent from 274 in Q1 to 86 in Q2.

By June, the top ten ranking firms were back to an average of 643 transactions a month – surpassing March’s figure of 477 and closing in on the 649 recorded in February. 

Search Acumen director Andy Sommerville says: “While the figures for the second quarter were largely gloomy, there are some important lessons to learn from. 

“We saw many firms adapt to new, digital ways of working under lockdown in order to maintain some level of activity. 

“Now that some demand has returned to the market, it is time for all firms to act and harness the available data and latest innovations once and for all.

“We have started to see indications that the market has accepted the reality that digitisation is the way forward for the industry. 

“The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government’s bid to modernise England’s planning sector is just one such sign. 

“The government is waking up to the fact that an overreliance on manual tasks and in-person activity has gone on for far too long.

But he adds: “It is not just up to the government to enact change. 

“Instead, the private sector must work hand in hand with local and national public bodies to forge a property market strong enough to bolster the UK’s economy as we emerge from Covid-19. 

“We have long called for collaboration around the increased availability of accurate data, the importance of integrating the latest technologies including artificial intelligence and blockchain into property processes and ensuring that people are well versed in these innovations to best leverage the data at our fingertips.”