<p><span>The value of </span><span>agreed</span><span> home sales in 2020 </span><span>will be</span><span> £62 billion higher than last year, according to the latest data from Zoopla.</span></p> <p><span>This is a 26% increase on 2019 with the property portal seeing 40% more demand for housing during the year, despite the closure of the market in the spring in response to the pandemic.</span></p><p></p> <p><span>In its monthly House Price Index, Zoopla said the pandemic had facilitated </span><span>“</span>a seismic search for space and quality of location” with more sales being agreed at higher prices, fuelling the increase in home sales value. </p> <p>The additional £62 billion of sales will bring the annual total of homes sold this year to more than £300 billion, Zoopla’s data showed.</p> <p><span>The property portal recorded <span>9% more sales agreed than</span> last year. It pointed out that some of these would “spill over” into 2021 with transactions taking three to four months to complete.</span></p> <p>The south east and eastern England saw the strongest rebound in sales – a more than 20% increase on 2019. And with higher average selling prices seen in these areas this year, the value of these home sales lifted <span>37%</span><span>.</span></p> <p><span>Zoopla said the “rollercoaster year” was set to end with …