It wasn't long ago that real estate experts were bracing for the worst. The coronavirus pandemic had sent large parts of the world into lockdown, shuttering businesses, costing tens of millions of workers their jobs and putting the housing market into a deep freeze. The number of people asking lenders for more time on their mortgage payments surged as the global recession hit.

"This time last year we thought it was going to be 2008 all over again," said Kate Everett-Allen, the head of international residential research at real estate consultancy Knight Frank.