Perhaps it's because Homes Under the Hammer has become our guilty pleasure in lockdown, or that more of us are hoping to make a quick buck in hard times. Whatever the reason, the proportion of homes being flipped - sold twice within a year - is at its highest level for twelve years.
Flipping a home is a relatively speedy way to earn cash, perhaps by making improvements to a fixer upper, like the ones often featured on the BBC daytime show and putting it back on the market.
And the earnings aren't to be sniffed at. Hamptons International said that the average profit is £40,995. The estate agency said that so far this year2.5 per cent of homes sold in England and Wales have been flipped, which could equate to 23,000 transactions by the end of 2020.
It is the highest proportion of transactions being flipped since 2008 - the year of the financial crisis - when 3.3 per cent of properties were flipped. Burnley in Lancashire was named the flipping capital of England and Wales for the sixth year running. Hamptons estimated that nearly one in ten homes sold there are flipped.
The North East and North West see high proportions of homes flipped because of lower house prices, Hamptons added. Aneisha Beverage, the estate agency's head of research, said: 'Flippers play an important role in the housing market by improving housing stock and taking on projects other buyers often won't touch.'
