The property market is defying the traditional summer lull in activity as buyers and sellers continue to flood the market post-lockdown.

Last month, one in 10 properties sold for more than the original asking price as buyers competed to secure their dream homes, according to NAEA Propertymark.

It says this shows that the housing market continues to thrive after the seven-week lockdown hiatus as the last time more properties sold for above asking price was in February 2016 at 11%.

The report suggests, however, that with sellers keen to offload properties quickly, there are still bargains to be had as 57% of properties sold for less than the originally advertised asking price in June.

Transactions figures continued to recover last month, doubling to 10 per estate agency branch and higher than the nine recorded in the same month last year.

Demand for homes remains high and will have since been boosted by the announcement of a stamp duty holiday earlier this month. NAEA Propertymark reports that there were 379 property hunters registered per estate agency branch last month, up by 10% from the 344 recorded in May.

On an annual basis, meanwhile, demand is up by almost a quarter from the 305 recorded in June 2019.

The supply of homes also increased on a monthly basis last month, up to 37 from 35 recorded in May. Annually, the figure remained the same.

The proportion of homes purchased by first-time buyers dropped by 3% between May and June from 32% to 29% as other home movers looked to take advantage of the market reopening.

“It’s positive to see the market continuing to boom after the government re-opened the property market in May,” says Mark Hayward, outgoing chief executive of NAEA Propertymark.

“Usually we’d expect to see a lull in activity during the summer months; however, with estate agents following new social distancing protocols and both demand and sales soaring, it seems we’re in for a busy summer.”