Zoopla has reported that sales and vendor leads have reached a 2020 high, beating those delivered even during the strong start to the year.

The growth follows a steady recovery after the market was closed for 50 days during lockdown, with the market further buoyed since the Chancellor announced a Stamp Duty (SDLT) holiday applicable to properties priced up to £500,000 in the Summer Statement.

As part of the continued consumer education and engagement activity that both preceded and succeeded the SDLT holiday announcement, Zoopla says that it doubled down on driving vendor and applicant leads to agents through its products and software services.

The Stamp Duty holiday brought with it a full recovery of the vendor leads that Zoopla delivers to agents, up 7% in the week commencing 6th July compared to pre-Covid levels.

The portal says that leads have been driven primarily through zoopla.co.uk/valuation with the support of paid search investment, providing an increase in sessions of 78% in the same period, with agents who have Valuation Booster seeing additional benefit.

In the week that followed the announcement of Stamp Duty relief, vendor leads delivered to agents by Zoopla climbed 14.5%, demonstrating a marked step change in sentiment.

Sales leads delivered by Zoopla direct to estate agents are currently registering at 51% above pre-Covid values.

Since 13th May, sales leads are up 131% compared to the height of the market lockdown, and were boosted 13% in the week that followed news of the Stamp Duty holiday.

Nikki Cole, Sales Director at Zoopla, said:

“It’s been clear from the outset that supply needs to keep pace with demand in order for agents to reap the full rewards of the post-lockdown momentum.

“We knew that agents needed more support than ever to build stock and in turn sales pipelines, and we’ve worked hard to channel vendor interest and demand to agents quickly and efficiently.”