The property industry has been named as one of the two most resilient sectors to pull through the pandemic relatively unscathed.

Agents will already be aware of how lucky they have been compared to friends and family working in hospitality, performing arts or travel, but now it’s official.

Figures just out from the Office of National Statistics show that the property industry and the education sector have been the safest havens to work in during Covid, followed by wholesale retail, transportation and storage plus professional and/or scientific jobs.

Companies working in these sectors have seen the highest growth revenue of up to 2% during the pandemic.

This government data, which compares 2020 to 2019, roughly categorises types of companies and sectors into resilient and non-resilient, the former bouncing back much faster after the first lockdown than the second, but doesn’t cover the sectors that have now been mothballed until recently such as high street retail and theatres.

“Following the sharp declines in turnover in April 2020, resilient industries had much less ground to make up to get back to the average level for March to December 2019, whereas the other industries have barely exceeded the level of turnover seen in February 2020, immediately before the pandemic,” the report says.

The research also shows that independent firms have fared as well as if not better than corporates.

Outside of property and education, two of the biggest boom industries have been the sale of IT equipment for home workers, and garden and DIY equipment.

The hardest hit of all sectors were unsurprisingly travel tour operators, film production and travel agency. And ONS quotes recent McKinsey research, which shows economic activity still 30% down on February 2020 and that 7.6 million jobs remain at risk.