New figures released by Nationwide Building Society looking at the UK house price trends and prices have revealed that the annual price growth has risen to 10.9% to the year ending May 2021.
This means, according to the company's research, that the new UK average house price hits a record high of £242,832, up by £23,930 over the past 12 months.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist says: "May saw a further acceleration in annual house price growth to 10.9%, the highest level recorded since August 2014.
"In month-on-month terms, house prices rose by 1.8% in May, after taking account of seasonal effects, following a 2.3% rise in April.
"The market has seen a complete turnaround over the past twelve months. A year ago, activity collapsed in the wake of the first lockdown with housing transactions falling to a record low of 42,000 in April 2020.
"But activity surged towards the end of last year and into 2021, reaching a record high of 183,000 in March."
This is what the new average house price could get you in Wales:
In Wales, recent analysis by property portal Rightmove and the Office of National Statistics (ONS), although analysing slightly different time periods, show the property market in Wales is currently the hottest region in the UK.
Looking at data to the end of March 2021 the ONS state that, as a nation, Wales' house prices increased by 11% in the year to March 2021, up from 8.4% in February 2021, and were growing faster than the UK annual rate of 10.2% in the year to March 2021.
The ONS figures also show that Carmarthenshire is the region that has seen the fastest house price increases in Wales. Find out more about that here.
Rightmove's regional UK analysis indicated that house prices have increased by 13% in Wales in a year, almost a full 2% more than the next area listed, the north-west of England.
This is in stark contrast to the London market rate of price increase since pre-lockdown March 2020, which is now at a virtual standstill (+0.2%). Find out more about that here.
Regional variations aside, the latest research and survey from Nationwide looked at reasons behind the increased activity across the whole of the UK.
Mr Gardener suggests that the spike in March transactions was driven by the original stamp duty holiday end date but that a lot of the momentum that generated has been maintained as what he calls 'the race for space' continues.
He says: "Our research indicates that the extension to the stamp duty holiday is not the key factor, though it is clearly impacting the timing of transactions.
"Amongst homeowners surveyed at the end of April 2021, that were either moving home or considering a move, more than two thirds (68%) said this would have been the case even if the stamp duty holiday had not been extended.
"It is shifting housing preferences which is continuing to drive activity, with people reassessing their needs in the wake of the pandemic.
"At the end of April, 25% of homeowners surveyed said they were either in the process of moving or considering a move as a result of the pandemic, only modestly below the 28% recorded in September last year.
"Given that only around 5% of the housing stock typically changes hands in a given year, it only requires a relatively small proportion of people to follow through on this to have a material impact."
Research conducted online for Nationwide by Censuswide between 23-27 April 2021, using a nationally representative 3,012 general consumers aged 18+ across the UK, showed that the most popular reason for wanting to currently buy a property is to move to a different area, accounting for 33% of respondents' answers.
The 'race for space', both inside and outside a home, continues to be a huge driver for people looking for new homes, with Nationwide's survey revealing that nearly 30% were moving to access a garden or outdoor space more easily.
Of those homeowners staying in their current property, 46% were looking to add or maximise space as the work from home boom continues to fuel the need to rethink or add to a property's floorplan.
Mr Gardner says: "Consistent with this, the majority of people are looking to move to less urban areas, with this preference particularly pronounced for older age cohorts.
"Over a third (36%) of those surveyed said they were more likely to consider enhancing their home as a result of Covid-19. These results are very similar to those from our survey in September last year.
"It is interesting that around a third (35%) of homeowners looking to enhance their home cited an intention to improve energy efficiency or reduce the carbon footprint of their home.
"This is a key shift if the UK economy is to become carbon neutral, given that the housing stock accounts for around 15% of the UK's carbon emissions."
The yearning for better access to outdoor space and a less built-up environment as a main reason for people moving was a key finding in another UK-wide survey.
Cornerstone Tax, using a representative sample of 2,090 people across the country, concluded that an estimated 44% of people now find living in urban areas less appealing.
The results suggested that in the past year 10% of people have moved away from a city or urban area and 24% will no longer commute into a city or major town for their job post-pandemic.
Find your next perfect home here:
David Hannah, principal consultant at Cornerstone Tax, says: "The findings from our report confirm what we have thought for much of the past 12 months, that living in a city has undergone a permanent shift in appeal.
"The clients we have advised during the pandemic have almost exclusively been looking for more space, both inside and outside the property."
Many property professionals agree that the short to medium term future of the property market across Wales and the UK is unclear, with demand for properties likely to continue to strongly outstrip supply but the severity of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy and employment still hard to predict.
Mr Hannah added: "Many experts are questioning the long-term stability of the market, but right now, it is certainly a seller's game.
"Although, due to restricted supply, there are not many sellers – and so prices have risen by an incredible amount."
Over at Nationwide, Mr Gardner thinks that the housing market activity is likely to remain fairly buoyant over the next six months as a result of additional support for the labour market, continued low borrowing costs, improving credit availability and many people still motivated to move as a result of changing housing preferences in the wake of the pandemic.
He says: "With the stock of homes on the market constrained, there is scope for annual house price growth to accelerate further in the coming months, especially given the low base for comparison in early summer last year.
"Further ahead, the outlook for the market is far more uncertain.
"If unemployment rises sharply towards the end of the year, as most analysts expect, there is scope for activity to slow, perhaps sharply, though even this could potentially be offset by ongoing shifts in housing preferences, if current trends are maintained."
