According to NAEA Propertymark found that there was an average of 8 sales per branch. This is the highest number of sales per branch since 2006.

Alongside this, there was an average of 348 prospective buyers registered per branch. This is the highest number since December 2016.

This exceedingly busy December can be attributed to the stamp duty holiday.

Despite these promising statistics there was actually a fall in the number of buyers registered per branch. In November there was 580 buyers registered per branch but by December this number had fallen by 41%.

The number of sales also fell by 13 in November.

Mark Hayward, chief advisor at Propertymark, has argued that the fall in prospective buyers show that tightening lockdown restrictions, coupled with the fact that many will now not meet the stamp duty deadline, this process has been exasperated.

He is worried about the property industry and states that more than two thirds (69%) of estate agents are expecting to see an increase in sales falling through due to buyers realising their sales are not going to go ahead before the stamp duty deadline.