Unless you’ve been living on a desert island without internet (if so, lucky you) you can’t fail to have noticed that the last year of a global pandemic has had a huge impact on the housing market and fundamentally, what is important to us when buying a property.

So what has changed? Well location, location, location has become even more key than ever before, with Rightmove reporting a huge increase in searches for coastal and rural locations, such as Cornwall and right here on the Isle of Wight. Now that more and more people can work from home, the need to be in the city has shifted. When work can be done remotely from the beach, who’s going to choose the high-rise office?

Working from home has also had an impact on what we need from the property itself. The requirement for a proper home office or the ability to create one, has increased massively. Whether that is purpose-built garden office or a decent sized extra bedroom, that space matters.

As well as space inside, our outdoor space has also become a top priority. For those who have spent the last year of on and off lockdowns with no outside space to call their own, getting some much needed green space has actually reached a record high. The garden has become one of the top requirements for buyers, and now has an elevated positions as basically another room of the house, just an outdoors one!

Although we are all keen to get back to socialising, if you have spent the last year locked in next door to noisy neighbours, you may well understand the increase in demand for detached properties!

There’s no doubt that 2020 has changed the housing market and our priorities for our homes.