New data shows exactly how badly the coronavirus lockdown affected house sales in Norfolk and Suffolk earlier this year – but now the market is bouncing back.

According to a new report released by WeBuyAnyHome, the company received 33% fewer inquiries about house sales between January and May this year when compared to the same period in 2019.

In Norfolk, the drought in sales was far deeper than average – enquiries fell 106% below the national average.

This meant the county’s housing market was the second slowest in England – behind only Northumberland, where enquiries fell 130% below the national average.

In Suffolk, the drought dipped to 24% below the national average.

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But estate agent Tim Dansie says that since the market reopened on May 12 business has picked up.

“At the beginning of the year – January and February – it wasn’t that dire,” said Mr Dansie of Jackson-Stops. “We had a market and we were working with it.

“Of course when lockdown came on March 23 that snuffed it out overnight. We still had a little bit on enquiry coming through, but that trailed off after seven and a half weeks of not a lot.

“We then came back on May 12 – a date that will be emblazoned on my mind forever.

“I was expecting a wall of interest, but to start of with it was quiet.

“Within a week or ten days we had really started to get some momentum going and that has continued in what has been an extraordinarily busy and active market.”

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Mr Dansie said this was the latest in a series of abnormal years for the property market.

“There’s been a lot of rocks tossed into the property pool over the last five years,” he said.

“We’ve had two elections, stamp duty changes, Brexit and now Covid-19.

“In a normal year, if one exists, you get a strong spring market then it runs through to the school holidays, before picking up again in September.

“But this year we have had a ridiculously busy July and August which never normally happens and there’s no sign yet of it tailing off going into Autumn.”

The WeBuyAnyHome data can be found here.