With outside temperatures soaring to tropical levels this week imagine what it’s been like for those with the added pressure of selling a house. Steamy.

The UK housing market is “on fire” Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane confirmed.

Great Missenden estate agent Jeremy Swan says some sellers wanting a quick sale are prepared to put themselves into temporary accommodation to enable a buyer to move in as soon as the legal work is completed.

“To stop buyers pulling out, some sellers are resorting to extreme measures. We have vendors who have moved into rented homes rather than risk losing a buyer who doesn’t want to wait for the market to return to normal,” the local agent agrees.

On Tuesday this week there were 704,000 homes under offer in the UK on the Rightmove website - “the biggest sales logjam in a decade.”

In normal times transactions usually take an average of three months from the sale being agreed to completion.

The current surge in sales and the likelihood of the main parties working from home has added another month to the process, Zoopla reports. Which accounts for the backlog.

He added: “More than 50,000 homebuyers could be at risk of missing out on the stamp duty holiday tax break because of delays in the system.”

Meanwhile house prices are rising at four times the rate of flats mainly due to the twin attractions of a private garden and somewhere inside where you can shut the door and work from home that’s not a thoroughfare for the rest of mankind.

The combination of government incentives such as the stamp duty holiday plus lack of stock has resulted in huge demand for houses with outside space and a spare room somewhere.

Prior to the pandemic the government tax on house sales – stamp duty - was payable on residential properties that had been sold for £250,000 and above.

In July last year, to boost the national economy at risk of a steep decline caused by lockdown, the starting point for stamp duty was raised to properties sold for half a million.

Zoopla’s Nicky Burridge predicts more than 1.5 million homes will change hands this year, 45 per cent more than last year. The total value of all the privately owned property sold in 2021 is expected to reach £461 billion, 68 per cent above the figure for 2019.

Chris Moorhouse and Nick Pounce head of sales at Savills offices in Beaconsfield and Amersham believe the present spike in demand for a country haven in Bucks won’t end when the stamp duty holiday finishes.

One of the houses on the market at the Beaconsfield office of Knight Frank is Fugelmere Grange in Fulmer (pictured above).

It was built in 1961 in the shape of an aircraft with air conditioning, underfloor heating and triple glazing. The balconies form the cockpits and the wings either side.

The design makes the most of the south facing views over the four and a half acre grounds.

There are five bedrooms, five bathrooms, four reception rooms and a self contained annexe above the garage block. Guide price: £3,995,000.