Almost half of sellers have had buyers ask for a price reduction since the coronavirus pandemic struck the UK but many are resisting, online estate agent Strike claims.

Analysis among 2,000 sellers by the firm found that 45% of sellers have received discounted offers ranging from 5% to 10% below asking price. A quarter of respondents said they would consider a reduction of between 5% to 10% but 29% said they won’t accept a lower offer.

Despite this, 52% of sellers are confident that they can make a sale this year and 18% said they have had more interest in their property than they expected.

Sam Mitchell, chief executive at Strike, said: “Now that restrictions have been lifted, property demand is booming. Not only was there pent up demand to move after months of being unable to, but the Government’s Stamp Duty holiday being released into a low-interest-rate environment has also worked wonders for the UK property market’s revival.

“Over the past few months we’ve seen at least a 50% increase in demand from buyers now versus before lockdown and we are on average agreeing twice as many sales per week as we were pre-lockdown, which is astonishing.”