With significantly more buyers looking for space to work from home, agents have responded by highlighting offices and workspaces on property listings, according to new data released today by Rightmove.

Between June and October this year, 28% more new properties came to market compared to the same period last year, and of all those new listings, there was an annual jump of 326% in listings that mentioned terms like ‘office’, ‘workspace’ and ‘working from home’ in the property description.

Agents have also reported an increase in demand for people looking for outbuildings and annexes where people can set up a home office, with the use of Rightmove’s keyword sort tool mirroring this trend.

Home-hunters using the tool to search for ‘outbuilding’ is up 90% on this time last year, and is up 89% for ‘annex’ or ‘annexe’. 

People using the tool to search for properties with ‘no chain’ is also up 110%, likely as people look to buy quickly to take advantage of the temporary stamp duty holiday ending in March.

The desire for more space has led to a notable rise in demand for four- and five-bedroom homes.

According to the data, back in March, five-bedroom detached houses were taking an average of 92 days from being first listed on Rightmove until they were marked as under offer or Sold Subject to Contract by an agent. That time has reduced by 30 days to now taking 62 days.

Coming in second is four-bedroom bungalows, going from taking 86 days to now taking 59 days, a drop of 27 days. Third on the list is four bed detached houses, followed by four-bedroom semi-detached houses.

Rightmove’s director of property data Tim Bannister said: “Over the past eight months, with the requirement for many people to work from home, we’ve seen workspaces evolving from laptops balancing on the end of the bed to fully equipped home offices in the garden shed, and everything in between. 

“Many home-movers have determined that their current property doesn’t offer enough space for effective home working and have been trading up – either within their local area or looking further afield for that bigger home. 

“Agents I’ve been speaking to have said that they’ve been inundated with requests from prospective buyers for properties with an extra reception room, an extra bedroom, or an extra building outside that they can turn into a functioning office. Working from home is here to stay for many, perhaps not full-time but certainly a few days a week, and so it looks like the trend of home-hunters settling for a make-shift place to perch a laptop seen back in March has been replaced with a more permanent need for space being added to their property checklist.”

Time to secure a buyer: