HOUSE prices enjoyed their strongest annual growth for six years in 2020 as the market was spurred on by tax breaks and changing demand amid the pandemic, according to an index.

Nationwide Building Society said the average UK house price jumped 7.3 per cent this year to £230,920 after rising 0.8 per cent in December alone.

The report revealed that prices have jumped 5.3 per cent since March, when the pandemic struck, after demand was sent surging by a stamp duty holiday and the shift to homeworking.

In Barrow itself house prices have risen the yearly percentage change of house prices has risen by 5.8 per cent as of October according to the Land Registry data.

In the same set of data it showed the average house price in Barrow was £130,986, which is a huge increase from £115,045 which it was in April after lockdown struck.

Nationwide said the stamp duty boost had brought forward Britons' home-moving plans, while changing working patterns had increased demand for larger homes in less densely populated locations.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said: "The resilience seen in recent quarters seemed unlikely at the start of the pandemic.

"Indeed, housing market activity almost ground to a complete halt during the first lockdown as the wider economy shrank by an unprecedented 26 per cent.

"But, since then, housing demand has been buoyed by a raft of policy measures and changing preferences in the wake of the pandemic."

However, he added that the outlook for the housing market remains "highly uncertain" as restrictions to control the virus tighten across the UK and with government support measures and the stamp duty holiday set to end in the spring.