300% jump in properties being marketed as suitable for home working

There has been a jump of more than 300% in properties being marketed as being suitable for home working, according to a website.

Rightmove said that between June and October this year, 28% more new properties came to market compared with the same period last year.

Among the new listings, there has been a 326% annual jump in ones mentioning terms such as “office”, “workspace” and “working from home” in the property description.

Rightmove’s director of property data Tim Bannister said: “With the requirement for many people to work from home, we’ve seen workspaces evolving from laptops balancing on the end of the bed to fully equipped home offices in the garden shed, and everything in between.”

Estate agents have also reported an increase in demand for people looking for outbuildings and annexes where people can set up a home office.

Rightmove said home-hunter searches using its keyword tool to look for outbuildings are up by 90% compared with a year ago. Searches for annexes are up by 89%.

“No chain” searches have also jumped by 110%, which Rightmove said could indicate that people are looking for a fast move so they can take advantage of the stamp duty holiday which ends in March 2021.

The desire for more space has helped four and five-bedroom homes emerge as the biggest “winners” of the property market this year, the website said.

Back in March, five-bedroom detached houses were taking an average of 92 days from being first listed on Rightmove to be marked by estate agents as under offer or sold.

That time has reduced by 30 days to now take 62 days.

Over the same period, the typical time it takes to sell a four-bedroom bungalow has fallen by 27 days, from 86 to 59 days.