This was pretty inevitable. Stamp duty tax break, combined with millions of people sitting at/working from home all day, unable to really spend anything, staring at their 4 walls & thinking "this place is ****, let's upgrade". The importance of having a nice home has jumped to front-centre priority in may people's minds.
It's not been equal across all sectors though - flats have taken a huge hit in London/SE - some reports of values down 30%+.
Despite face values appearing so out of sync with earnings, mortgages are still more affordable than they have perhaps ever been.
How much money are people saving though?
Your talking a temporary break in commuting costs. Possibly also in food.
How much of an upgrade can you get with 6 months of commuting costs?
My point being. If I lived in a hole and had £50k in the bank chances are I would have already been moving.
I don't believe this latest uptake has been anything other than due to people who were at home realising they had to move out or their partner was actually intolerable so they are getting their own place.
My immediate thought on saving £200 a month on commuting and £100 a month on eating out whilst at work wouldn't mean I go and sign up to giving away an additional £300 month for the next 30 years. Because when I have to go back to work I won't have that additional £300 spare every month.
Put it this way a bimbo i know talks about all the money she's saving is now complaining about gas and electricity through winter. Because she's working from home rather than the office.
Yet she went on holiday abroad in the summer to Greece or turkey. Caught Covid and took 2 weeks off work self isolating. Holiday was cheap in relative terms but I bet she ate out every day all day as well as drank. Most smart people cancelled their holidays they had already booked she went and booked one during a pandemic because it was cheap.
She just went out and spent £1k on a Ps5 for her step son because his real mum bought him one and he couldn't play it whilst at hers.
So folk that are saving money working from home will always find ways of parting with it one way or another. Only the ones who were determined and motivated to begin with won't.