How the housing market survived COVID-19

All four previous recessions in the UK led to a sharp slowdown or an outright fall in house prices. But 2020 was very different, with house price growth accelerating to a six-year high despite the largest collapse in output for 100 years. That has been attributed to the stamp duty holiday and changes in housing preferences due to the pandemic. But we would put far more weight on the extraordinary fiscal policy response and that, uniquely, mortgage rates were low and declining when the recession hit.