Demand for apartments is flatlining in Britain

SHUT DOWN between March and May, the housing market has roared back to life. Nationwide, a lender, reckons prices hit a record high in August. Pent-up demand and a temporary cut in stamp duty have helped propel interest, but a bigger factor, according to estate agents, is that people are reassessing their housing needs. Spending weeks trapped indoors gave them a chance to think hard about their living quarters, while the rise in working from home is already having an impact. Richard Donnell, the research director of Zoopla, a property website, thinks that Britain has undergone a “once in a lifetime re-evaluation of housing requirements”.