Real estate as a whole has been quite a hard hit sector by the pandemic, with dozens of agencies shutting down due to clients cutting down budgets or pausing their services. It's mandatory, at this stage, in fact, to create a working architecture which is supposed to operate and help business owners in maintaining clients and prospect for longer. Let's find out what's the future of real estate.
Going Digital
Rightmove says traffic to its website returned to pre-lockdown levels on the day the market reopened, with 5.2 million visitors. It may take some time for sales figures to get back to the numbers we’re used to seeing, however. Just 11,000 properties were listed for sale on Rightmove in the week following the market reopening, down 65% on the same week last year. A new survey by Zoopla, meanwhile, found that 41% of home movers are now putting their plans on ice. Last year, 1.175m house moves were recorded in the UK. The agency Knight Frank predicts 734,000 moves this year, while Savills places its estimate in the range of 566,000 and 745,000. This also works with agencies focusing on commercial property auctions.
New Properties
There has been a marked decrease in the number of homes coming to market since the current social distancing measures were put in place.
While ESPC agents are now offering virtual property valuations to help people get started on their selling journey, properties in Scotland also need a Home Report before being marketed. This requires a surveyor to attend the property in person.
At present, the approach of surveyors is to follow Scottish Government guidance which is generally to delay Home Reports until after the current social distancing measures have been eased, unless the house move is considered “reasonably necessary”.
The Impact On The Market
The Centre for Economics and Business Research think tank has predicted that house prices will fall by 13 per cent by the end of the year due to the pandemic. It has revealed that the effect will vary across the country depending on how badly a region’s workforce was hit. The think tank predicts that house prices in Yorkshire and the Humber and Northern Ireland will fall hardest. In these regions the main industries of manufacturing, construction, retail and hospitality have been hit the hardest.
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