Stamp duty holiday keeps estate agents busy during lockdown

• Watch Matthew Hudson's report for ITV News Anglia

Estate agents have been allowed to stay open under tier four restrictions, but they've had to step up precautions to keep safe.

The demand for buying and selling homes during the pandemic has held up and estate agents have been busy. They have been riding a wave of sales due to the stamp duty holiday and people's desire to move. It's hardly business as usual in Peterborough for estate agents Edward Stuart but it is business.

Tyson Panther, from Edward Stuart estate agents, said: "We tend to feel quite safe with masks, hand sanitisers and shoe covers.

"We're really stopping as much as we can in terms of contact with other people's homes and other people's households.

"The general feeling is safe, but of course we're here to worry about our vendors and our clients as well so we err on the side of caution always."

Estate agents hope the accelerating rate of vaccination will allow them to remain open. 

Today letters offering the jab were sent to 4.6million people in their 70s plus another one million classed as 'clinically extremely vulnerable' due to serious medical conditions. Half of all people over 80 have now had a jab.