Pandemic boom put £100k on price of detached homes

DETACHED houses are now worth £100,000 more than before the pandemic, after demand for bigger homes pushed up prices.

House prices across the board rose by a fifth on average between the beginning of 2020 and end of 2022, climbing from £237,895 to £286,515 during the pandemic boom, according to analysis by lender Halifax.

But detached homes grew in value more than all other property types, fuelled by a race for space that created bidding wars for homes with more rooms and bigger gardens.

Detached house prices leapt by about a quarter in the three-year period, rising from £359,725 in January 2020 to £453,070 in December 2022.

Prices for standalone homes rose by just 8.8pc in the previous three-year period – between 2017 and 2019 – and in January 2020 had grown by just 1.7pc year-on-year, compared with a growth rate of 4.1pc for flats.

Increases in the market value of more spacious houses have dwarfed jumps in the prices of smaller property types in the three years since. The average price for a flat rose by 13.3pc between 2020 and 2022, while the value of terraced houses jumped by 21pc and the price of semi-detached houses climbed by 23pc. Kim Kinnaird, of Halifax, said the pandemic had transformed the property market and triggered a “huge step change” in house prices.

“Heightened demand created a much higher entry point for bigger properties right across the country, and that impact is still being felt today by both buyers and sellers, despite the market starting to slow overall,” he said.

“Even if the average detached property price now fell by 10pc, it would still be around £50,000 more expensive than before the pandemic.”

Owners of detached houses in Greater London, the South East, the South West, eastern England and the West Midlands all gained more than £100,000 on the price of their homes between 2020 and 2022, the bank said.

The biggest gain was in the South East, where the average price of a detached house jumped by more than £136,000 to reach £637,292 in December 2022.