A property company has analysed Google Search Data from the past year to reveal what movers were looking for in 2020 – a year of fundamental change in how tenants, landlords, buyers and sellers viewed their homes. 

When looking at specific home features, the searches with the highest year on year growth were highly aspiration, to put it mildly. They are:

– apartment with balcony (147 per cent of 2019 search level);

– apartment with hot tub (139 per cent);

– house with tennis court (127 per cent);

– house with swimming pool (109 per cent);

– house with driveway (107 per cent.)

When it comes to property types, searches for two bedroom homes were well above their 2019 levels.

In terms of locations, Buckinghamshire showed the largest increase (up 73 per cent on 2019), following by Berkshire, West Yorkshire, Hertfordshire and Surrey, all up between 59 and 72 per cent.

At city level, the north dominated – perhaps a sign of its strength in terms of the rental market, too. 

Bradford, Liverpool, Sunderland, Preston and Newcastle showed increases over 2019 search levels of 42 to 52 per cent.

“More and more people are moving away from flats and apartments and into homes with outdoor space, and we’ve also seen many people looking to move away from cities into more rural areas. It’s interesting to see that they have been searching for more luxurious features such as a swimming pool and tennis court, no doubt due to the increase of time spent at home and leisure facilities closing due to the pandemic” says a spokesperson for Good Move, the company behind the research.