With the average homeowner staying put in their property for 23 years, mortgage loan company Ocean Finance has uncovered the top property value hotspots in the UK over the past 20 years.

In recent years its become more common for landlords to transfer their property portfolio into a limited company.

The stamp duty holiday, introduced in July 2020 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, was designed to reignite the flagging property market following years of uncertainty over Brexit and COVID lockdown restrictions. The eight month discount period allows homebuyers across England and Northern Ireland to benefit from a stamp duty (SDLT) exemption when purchasing homes up to a value of £500,000 (previously this tax threshold was £125,000), with a reduced rate for more expensive homes. For example, someone buying a £700,000 property will save £5,000 in SDLT while another buying an £800,000 property will save £15,000.

One of the major property-related consequences of the pandemic has been the soaring popularity of auctions, which were able to continue even during the first national lockdown as auction houses across the country were geared up for remote ways of working.

London and other urban areas dominate the league table of locations seeing the biggest house price rises of 2020.

The government has announced a further extension of the eviction ban until 21st February, at which point it will be reviewed.

The UK property market is continuing to rally following the pandemic lockdowns and is being driven by strong demand from homebuyers, new data has revealed. Sales completions are forecast to reach 1.5 million this year, up from 1.04 million last year – the highest level since 2007. The value of sales in 2021 is forecast to be £461 billion, up an impressive 68 per cent from 2019. Furthermore, although fractionally down on the 4.7 per cent peak earlier in the year, annual house price growth is also up on last year at 4.1 per cent, which is almost double the 2.3 per cent increase in April 2020.

If you’re trying to bag yourself a cheap buy-to-let property that will bring in a handy income for you, you might be thinking about attending an auction. After all – it looks simple enough on those daytime TV shows, where enthusiastic bidders are filmed renovating bargain properties, which they then sell or let for a healthy yield. How hard can it be?