Unlocking the housing market
DEVELOPERS AND AGENTS ARE PULLING OUT ALL THE STOPS TO ENSURE THAT PHYSICAL VIEWINGS CAN BE CONDUCTED SAFELY, SAYS ANDREA DEAN
SINCE the property market reopened back in May last year, buyers and renters have been free to hunt for a new home as well as proceed with planned moves. Virtual viewings and tours are now commonplace, but nothing beats visiting a property in person. So how are developers and estate agents ensuring that homes can be viewed in complete safety?
GOING SOLO
Government advice is to start your search online and only visit properties in person that you’re seriously interested in. When doing so, wear a face mask, avoid touching surfaces where possible, wash your hands regularly and also be prepared to walk around a show home on your own.
‘We are operating a socially distanced viewing policy, so customers do not come into contact with the sales adviser and instead view the property themselves,’ explains Kush Rawal, Director of Residential Investment at Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing. ‘They are also required to use the hand-sanitiser provided and to wear gloves during their visit. Before and after every viewing, the property is cleaned thoroughly throughout.’
SCAN THE ROOM
On unaccompanied viewings, you’ll always get the chance to put your questions to the agent via a video call, but Countryside has a free Show Homes app, which acts as a virtual tour guide and is available to iPhone users. Simply point your device at the ‘scan me’ stickers throughout the show home to play a recording about each room’s specification. The Countryside Show Homes app can currently be used at Feature 17 in Walthamstow and Brook Valley Gardens in Barnet.
GRAB AN UBER
Quintain Living provides potential residents of its Wembley Park rental community with a free Uber to and from their current homes within the M25. They are also given the option of an 100 per cent selfguided viewing with no face-to-face interaction at all.
SMART MOVE
Selling an older home brings a fresh set of challenges. As well as doing their best to make their homes appeal to buyers, vendors are taking extra measures to reduce the risk of Covid-19 being transmitted during viewings. Many, not surprisingly, are very cautious about who they allow over their threshold and agents are having to think outside the box to keep all parties happy. ‘The vendors of a flat
we are selling in Finchley have moved into a vacant property in the same block in order to reduce contact with prospective purchasers and make them feel more comfortable,’ reports Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent.
Jo Eccles, a buying agent, came up with a novel solution to allay the fears of the owners of a house in Notting Hill. ‘A client was keen to do a second viewing before he made an offer but the vendors decided they didn’t want any further viewings until Covid cases had dropped,’ says Jo, who runs Eccord, a property search, acquisition and management business (eccord.com). ‘We had a doctor meet us at the property and do a rapid Covid test on the doorstep so that we could demonstrate a negative result and go ahead with the viewing.’
The R&B sTaR has Been keeping supeR-Busy Tending To his planTs and making music
HE MAY well be best known for his hectic 7 Days schedule, but it seems Craig David has still been keeping himself busy through the pandemic – not least thanks to a new-found obsession with flower arranging.
Craig is also taking part in esports series Velo Eseries, an ongoing global partnership with McLaren Racing, which sees celebrities go head-to-head against internet sensations, and features the likes of Rory Reid and Supercar Blondie. All content is being streamed across Velo’s YouTube and social media channels until the end of April.
How has your routine changed this lockdown?
I get up quite early, maybe 5am, and will do a short meditation for around 30 minutes. I sit straight down to do the meditation still halfasleep, and then get straight back to bed again for a few more hours after – it is the nicest feeling. Then I’ll go downstairs and I always like to have a movie on in the background. Then I will get some breakfast, usually fruit. Then I’ll go back downstairs and water some of the plants around the house, because you realise they aren’t going to water themselves. I’ll then usually go into the studio and start to write a song into the early evening – sometimes late into the night.
You have a studio at home?
I do. I head up to the studio and mess around on my decks, play a couple of tunes, pretend I’m doing a DJ set and that will help me get inspired. I’ll listen to some new music that might have just come out on Spotify, or I’ll go to DJ city and pull up a few tunes from there
– that’s been a life saver for getting some nice instrumentals.
Have you taken up any lockdown hobbies?
I’ve enjoyed being a bit of a flower arranger and gardener. I’m loving finding places in my house where I could make a nice little area out of some plants. I’ve got palm trees going on, we’ve got orchids here and there, and I’m just having fun with it. I also dug out my printer, which has been sitting in my studio room forever not getting used, and started printing out pictures and filling some frames. When you start making your own little things, you can fill the extra hours.
What do you miss most during lockdown?
I can’t wait to get back on stage and to be able to give people that feeling of excitement. I think it’s going to be a beautiful time and I miss it, but we will get back to it very, very soon.
What have you been doing to stay in shape?
In the afternoon I usually spend some time in the area that I’ve made into a home gym. I’ll do a lot of different stretches, moves to get the legs and the glutes and back strong, to make sure I’m keeping flexible. I’ve been doing a lot of planking and a lot of squats, mainly leg work. I fit my whole routine around it.
Have you picked up any strange lockdown habits?
In the first lockdown I thought, ‘What could I just survive on if I can’t get anything fresh?’ So I ended up getting a load of nice Bircher muesli from a small shop called Ella. I just stocked up on muesli, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But I soon realised that once you’ve had it for breakfast, you don’t really want that for lunch and dinner! I still have a few bags to go through.
What do you do to cheer yourself up?
I’ll throw on Aladdin or Charlie And The Chocolate Factory as standard, just to catch a vibe.
What positives have you learnt from lockdown?
I would say that it’s given me the chance to see the things that really matter and focus on what is important to me. I’ve worked out where to really spend my time and energy, especially for work, which has been great. It means that I’m super-inspired when I do make music, because I’m getting the right amount of rest. It’s also made me understand how much we need to connect, how much connection we need from each other. Since that has been taken away from us, it’s made me realise how much more important it is for me to make music that makes people feel good. As soon as we can get back out and play live music, I’ll give people that feeling, the feeling they need.
What’s the first thing you’ll do when we are free again?
Getting back out there and being on stage. Although I feel like it actually comes under an essential activity that we need now more than ever. I think some people have realised that social activity, being together, hearing music or going to a show or a theatre performance – all those things are so important for our physical and mental health.