From this date, activities such as in-person property viewings and house moves may go ahead subject to the necessary health and safety precautions.

Last Friday, the volume of home report and schedule downloads were also at the highest level they’ve been since mid-March, prior to lockdown.

Last week was also the first week since mid-March that ESPC has seen a year-on-year increase in web traffic sessions. The volume of viewing and valuation requests generated last week also significantly exceeded the same week of last year.

At the start of the year before lockdown, web traffic had been significantly up year-on-year, as had valuation requests, viewing requests and home report downloads.

Due to lockdown restrictions put in place towards the end of March, these fell to volumes much lower than usual for this time of year.

However, viewing and valuation requests, home report and schedule downloads, and web traffic have been growing for a number of weeks now, and it appears that the First Minister’s announcement has further boosted demand for property in Scotland.

Paul Hilton, CEO of ESPC, said: “The notable increases in viewing and valuation requests, Home Report and schedule downloads, and web traffic highlights the growing demand for property in Scotland. The spike we noticed on Friday suggests that the announcement on Thursday about the restrictions being relaxed on 29 June also had an impact and boosted buyer interest.”