September’s here, but there’s no sign of the unexpected summer property boom drawing to a close just yet.

Levels of interest have been so high locally that the dreaded open house has made something of a comeback – in an appointment-only, pandemic-friendly format, of course.

I wrote last week about the back-to-back viewings that had taken place at our rental house, with a solid block of appointments over a four-hour period.

Well the same’s been happening in sales.

Agents are saying they’ve never seen an August like it and stories of bidding wars continue to abound. One lucky local vendor found themselves with more than 10 offers to choose between - a rarity in any market, particularly one we’re constantly being told is about to crash.

Amazing news for them, less so for the many disappointed wannabe buyers who found themselves back at square one.

On the bright side, a steady stream of homes continues to come to market, so at least there’s hope that another good one will be along soon to take away the pain - a change from the drought-like conditions of a year ago.

The housing market under the dark cloud of Brexit and, soon afterwards, the general election, was less than lovely – I say this from sorry personal experience.

Back then people were wanting to wait and see how things would play out politically before putting their place on the market. Now everyone’s in a rush to up sticks before the stamp duty holiday comes to an end.

We finally completed on our sale last week, nearly six months to the day since our offer was accepted.

Six mad months, including a frozen market, many furloughed estate agents and – hurrah – the absolute blessing that was the stamp duty holiday.

The latter made the frustratingly prolonged process seem suddenly worth it - and was all the sweeter for the fact that we were initially set to complete in June, a couple of weeks before Rishi’s announcement.

Here’s hoping for some similar silver linings for the movers who’ve just missed out.