Estate agents bank on virtual viewings to get buyers clicking with next home
Rightmove says it will take months for sales activity to recover as transactions grind to a halt
FIRST house viewings will have to be done virtually, estate agents have suggested, as they plot their way to reviving the market after the lockdown with social distancing.
Property purchases have slowed to a trickle since the country locked down a month ago, with buyers and renters unable to visit potential homes for viewings.
Estate agents last night said a plan needed to be drawn up to breathe life quickly back into the market as soon as the Government lifts restrictions.
This follows reports that estate agents could be among the first businesses allowed to reopen to help kickstart the floundering economy, alongside restaurants and coffee shops.
Rightmove, the property listings website, said that the market needs to be kept “simmering” and that, after the lockdown ends, a plan will be needed to overcome the “newfound caution” of buyers and sellers and to enforce social distancing.
Miles Shipside, a director at the firm, said: “We think it will take several months or more for the market to find its feet in this new unsteady world. Once the lockdown ends, agents will have to follow safe viewing precautions to give sellers the confidence to again allow viewers into their own homes, and buyers the confidence that they can safely visit homes that are for sale.”
Among the options agents might look to implement is a policy of online viewing first, where prospective buyers and tenants view a video tour of the property, with only serious buyers taken round to view it in person.
Social distancing could also be enforced by separating buyers and sellers during viewings, and encouraging those visiting a property not to touch anything. Several estate agents are already offering virtual property tours, however experts said there were limits to their effectiveness.
Rightmove said it would be highly unusual for someone to buy a property without physically viewing it, but that virtual viewings could help people choose whether a house was worth visiting after the lockdown.
Henry Pryor, an independent buying agent, said: “I’m still not convinced that the vast majority of people are going to be prepared to buy a house on the strength of a Youtube video put together by a professional marketeer. They will want to go and smell the coffee.”
Jeremy Leaf, an estate agent based in North London, said the sector would need to bring in measures to ensure “safe visiting and social distancing” when properties are viewed – and that this would need to extend to surveyors and other parties.
Rightmove said the collapse in activity over the past week was in stark contrast to the start of the year, in which the property market had been at its most buoyant since 2016.
The firm said the number of sales agreed before the lockdown began on March 23 was up 11 per cent on the year before, with most continuing to go through. However, visits to its website fell by 40 per cent after the lockdown, although this was starting to recover.
Rightmove said lenders would need to continue to be able to offer favourable mortgage terms following the crisis, and that the Government may need to provide support to enable this. Banks and building societies have temporarily removed a huge number of lending deals from the market.
The firm also called on banks to be lenient with those who fall into arrears and refrain from rushing to repossess homes in order to avoid forced sales.
Earlier this month, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors took the unusual step of calling on the Government to offer a stamp duty holiday after the lockdown, to tempt would-be buyers.