The Winners and Losers of Greater Manchester’s 2020 Property Boom

The unprecedented impact and disruption of the coronavirus pandemic on all aspects of life has resulted in many people choosing to reevaluate their priorities. With more people spending more time indoors than ever before due to the lockdown, it is little wonder that thousands of families have chosen to change their living arrangements. 

While the coronavirus restrictions introduced to keep people safe resulted in a significant economic downturn, house prices across the UK hit record highs in 2020. According to Halifax’s mortgage-tracking index, house prices increased by 7.6% in the year to November 2020, while Nationwide’s index pointed to a 6.5% rise. Similarly, Rightmove estimated that asking prices had jumped up by 6.6% in the 12 months to December, while the Office for National Statistics’ transaction data pinpointed a 5.4% increase to October. 

Whichever indices prospective homeowners use, it is clear to see that the property market has seen a marked jump in activity brought on by the pandemic. The increased desire to move home, coupled with the government’s stamp duty holiday, announced in July as a means to kick-start the housing market, has resulted in a notable rise in property transactions. 

Here, we take a look at what this means for Greater Manchester, shedding light on the winners and losers of the property market boom and the areas that have seen the most sizable increases in popularity.

Click on the regions below to see the data related to that area.

Data based on comparing the number of Google searches made in July 2019 and July 2020.

Greater Manchester’s Property Market

According to Rightmove, most of the sales in Greater Manchester over the past 12 months were semi-detached properties, selling for an average of £216,682. Terraced properties sold for an average of £153,057, while detached homes were priced at around £349,127.

The region’s average house price stands at £210,070, making it more expensive than nearby Lancashire, which has an average price of £175,426 and Merseyside, which stands at £181,072. 

The most expensive area within Greater Manchester is Bowdon (£700,677), while the cheapest was Hindley (£119,715). 

House prices in Greater Manchester have increased by 3% since 2019, and are 6% higher than in 2018.

The Impact of the Pandemic on Greater Manchester’s Property Market 

As with the rest of the country, Greater Manchester saw a marked increase in the number of property transactions in 2020. JMW Solicitors used Google Trends data to establish the areas that had emerged as the most popular places to live in as the property market began to improve after the first lockdown. 

Comparing searches from July 2019 to July 2020, we found that the following places across the borough experienced the biggest increase in searches: 

While the vast majority of areas across the region have seen an increase in demand amid the national property market boom, others have seen their popularity dwindle, with Google searches for properties in the following areas remaining stagnant despite the lift: