Spike in searches for homes with gardens and terraces during lockdown

Although house removals are not covered by the rules for leaving home during the national quarantine – only 'necessary' outings, such as visiting supermarkets, pharmacies, banks, buying newspapers and cigarettes, caring for the elderly and the disabled, or medical appointments and filling up at petrol stations are permitted – this does not stop would-be homeowners from searching and, as everyone is in the same boat, most do not feel they have to rush as they are unlikely to lose out to someone else.

And being in lockdown is leaving all except key workers and home workers and those with dependants with more time on their hands, creating more of a desire to plan and plenty of spare moments to dream.

Once quarantine is over, gardens, terraces and balconies may be less urgent as occupants will then be able to go outside again and catch some fresh air and sunshine – but if this situation ever happens again, having a private outdoor space is likely to make it far less of an ordeal.

Residents on urbanisations or in apartment blocks are not allowed to use communal facilities such as swimming pools, gardens or terraces – only exits and entrances – meaning balconies have become hugely important for the latter, and private courtyards, gardens and pools for the former.

Filters on searches for property with outdoor spaces in general have been applied 40% more than usual, although homes with gardens appear 128% more often than those with terraces or balconies, according to data from property portals across the board.

Property for sale searches online continue at a healthy rate, perhaps because people living in Spain already are discovering that, now they are spending more time in their houses, inconvenient aspects of them that they had not noticed before are starting to become more apparent – for example, a family with children may have become aware that the home they are living in is too small when all of them are in it 24 hours a day.

Now could, in fact, be a better time than ever to put your home on the market if you were planning to do so and it has a garden or, at least, a terrace, neither of which are communal – although a sale may take longer due to viewings in person having to be postponed, this appears to be a time when more potential buyers are looking at what is available and seeking ideas.

It is also possible that home renovations and redecorations may spike once the lockdown is over, DIY stores open to the general public and not just to traders, and construction workers are once again able to carry out non-urgent jobs on occupied buildings – spending 24 hours a day at home for weeks on end could well cause residents to start 'picking holes' in their décor and fixtures and redesigning them in their heads.

In fact, when lockdown was imminent but not yet imposed, DIY stores said they had noticed an increase in customers buying paint and other materials so they could use this time to redecorate.

Although for those out there not keen on climbing ladders and cutting tiles, the choice of homes which need no renovations whatsoever – new and pre-owned – is huge, and the selection of properties with outside space is vast, such as the above-pictured three-bedroomed villa for sale in Finestrat, in the Costa Blanca area of Alicante province, among hundreds of thousands of others.