Almost half of the UK’s active house buyers stopped looking for a new home before the Government ‘suspended’ the housing market, new research from Trussle revealed.

The online mortgage broker found that a third of people in the UK (33%) were planning to buy or sell a property, according to a nationally representative study of 2,011 people that was carried out by Censuswide in March on behalf of Trussle.

The Government temporarily froze the housing market in late March, which Trussle suggested discouraged buyers and sellers from moving house. The survey showed that before these measures were announced, 49% of those planning to buy decided to ‘stop looking for a new home’ as a result of coronavirus.

By contrast, Trussle revealed that just 20% of sellers decided to halt proceedings on the sale of their home.

Overall, the study suggested both would-be buyers and would-be sellers were expecting to defer their property plans for an average of just over five months.

Trussle CEO, Ian Larkin, commented: “The coronavirus pandemic has not only had a huge impact on the economy, but also on everyday life in the UK.

“Just last month, it would have been nearly impossible to contemplate the scale of the lockdown and its economic impact. We’re now feeling the effects in the housing market and it’s difficult to predict how long it will take for transactions to return to pre-crisis levels.

“With the Government’s latest plea discouraging buyers from moving house, it’s entirely understandable that people are putting off their housing plans.”

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