Easing Lockdown For Housing Market - Timeline Discussion

Thrugelmir

Steve_KCS said:

 the majority of Mortgage applications are Digital now. 

Still requires human intervention on a significant scale. 

Comms69

Crashy_Time said:

Comms69 said:

davidmcn said:

The only current legal problem is that going to do a viewing isn't currently deemed to be a legitimate excuse for leaving the house, and moving house is only deemed to be so "where reasonably necessary" which might need some widening out (not sure how many house moves are more frivolous affairs).

All the professionals involved can get on with their work legally, if surveys aren't being done that's because the surveyors are (I think) following current RICS guidance rather than the law.

There is also disruption at other parties involved in the process e.g. Registers of Scotland have largely been shut down for several weeks.

Indeed, it's on pause primarily because of buyers and vendors, not the middle people.

I cant see there being any issues with the market opening (and growing rapidly)

Really? None at all?

Think you've misunderstood my point. I mean sellers and buyers will both be back, in large numbers after this is over.

[Deleted User]

Comms69 said:

Crashy_Time said:

Comms69 said:

davidmcn said:

The only current legal problem is that going to do a viewing isn't currently deemed to be a legitimate excuse for leaving the house, and moving house is only deemed to be so "where reasonably necessary" which might need some widening out (not sure how many house moves are more frivolous affairs).

All the professionals involved can get on with their work legally, if surveys aren't being done that's because the surveyors are (I think) following current RICS guidance rather than the law.

There is also disruption at other parties involved in the process e.g. Registers of Scotland have largely been shut down for several weeks.

Indeed, it's on pause primarily because of buyers and vendors, not the middle people.

I cant see there being any issues with the market opening (and growing rapidly)

Really? None at all?

Think you've misunderstood my point. I mean sellers and buyers will both be back, in large numbers after this is over.

HSBC had planned to cut 35,000 jobs 
Businesses and jobs are being lost left right and center 
The buyers might be back but they might not have jobs or the ability to raise mortgages 

shinytop

<sigh>  Why does a legitimate and quite interesting discussion about how the core activity discussed in this sub-forum might start working again have to turn into yet another pointless (and forbidden by MSE) discussion on the housing market?

Anyway, the sorts of activities done during a house purchase/rental and move are no more likely to spread the virus that, say, going to a supermarket.  Since the numbers moving house are tiny compared to those going shopping, I think the relevant laws and advice could be changed easily and safely to allow (1) existing, paused transactions to proceed and (2) new activity to commence.  

Steve_KCS

Crashy_Time said:

Steve_KCS said:

You'd imagine that the government and particularly the Chancellor will be looking at this very closely and it should be a fairly straight forward business model to operate under social distancing. 

For example, home reports and photographers to get properties on the market can be done by an individual with social distancing. 

Similarly, house viewing can also be conducted under social distancing. 

Valuations will be unlocked and the majority of Mortgage applications are Digital now. 

Do we see this as one of the easier industries to unlock post easing of the restrictions when that may be? 

They first need to fix the economy, or very few people will be buying, that is why it isn`t a priority for them, in fact they probably like the idea of "social distancing" being blamed for lack of activity.

It's almost as if your username is wishing for a financial crisis. 

Thrugelmir

shinytop said:

Anyway, the sorts of activities done during a house purchase/rental and move are no more likely to spread the virus that, say, going to a supermarket.  Since the numbers moving house are tiny compared to those going shopping,

Large open plan offices aren't laid out for social distancing. Nor are call centres. To be cost effective in recent years everything has been built on scale of operation. 

shinytop

Thrugelmir said:

shinytop said:

Anyway, the sorts of activities done during a house purchase/rental and move are no more likely to spread the virus that, say, going to a supermarket.  Since the numbers moving house are tiny compared to those going shopping,

Large open plan offices aren't laid out for social distancing. Nor are call centres. To be cost effective in recent years everything has been built on scale of operation. 

The same comment could be applied to supermarkets.

[Deleted User]

The potential problem in going back to the old way of estate agency is that you might have 1 person (valuer) visiting 5 or 6 different properties in a day. They may pass to vulnerable people or otherwise bring something back to the office who in turn pass it to their families.  
The old way wont work but it can return quite quickly if the bigger companies are able to adapt quickly. I know of 1 national agency that is still operating and doing:

• Virtual valuations -  vendor walks estate agent round property and then they have a discussion over zoom/facetime/whatsapp
• Online portal for vendor to upload photos and electronically sign documents
• Video viewings - restricts the number of timewasters wanting to just be nosey
• No open houses
• generally try to restrict the viewings to people who are proceedable

This wont work for everyone but it should start the market a bit whilst strict distancing measures are in place.  However at the moment it all falls when the government guidance is to not allow anyone who isnt in your family to enter your home. 
People are still buying houses but estate agents are generally encouraging people to break this guidance by doing a private viewing.   

The process can be unlocked to an extent but until people are comfortable with random people coming in to their homes then it will stumble along at a fraction of its previous rate.   Once they are able to start doing some sort of business I expect a lot of estate agents will fail to open.

natasha22

shinytop said:

Anyway, the sorts of activities done during a house purchase/rental and move are no more likely to spread the virus that, say, going to a supermarket.  Since the numbers moving house are tiny compared to those going shopping, I think the relevant laws and advice could be changed easily and safely to allow (1) existing, paused transactions to proceed and (2) new activity to commence.  

The thing is that going to the supermarket is risky, its just that they cant close supermarkets. I see lots of people saying well i should be able to sunbath, go to the zoo etc as its less risky than shopping.  Its a poor comparison to make as theres nothing magical about a supermarket that makes it safe and thats why its still open, its simply that its an essential activity in the same way people are still allowed to go to a+e etc. 

FrugalCat

shinytop said:

Thrugelmir said:

shinytop said:

Anyway, the sorts of activities done during a house purchase/rental and move are no more likely to spread the virus that, say, going to a supermarket.  Since the numbers moving house are tiny compared to those going shopping,

Large open plan offices aren't laid out for social distancing. Nor are call centres. To be cost effective in recent years everything has been built on scale of operation. 

The same comment could be applied to supermarkets.

You'd have thought supermarkets are benefiting from economic slowdown, where a good portion of the population can shop any time, any day of the week. 
I'd be interested to see how the current shopping pattern compares to peak times 8 weeks ago.

On the timeline:
The UK pandemic is a few weeks behind Italy/Spain, who are slowly emerging from lock-down. Based on the front-runner nation timelines, we could start seeing easing in a couple of weeks, but I'd expect the results there are being watched closely.
My perception is that the sentiment is shifting nationally (those who travel to work will likely have noticed traffic picking up this week). There was a noticeable bounce in house listings in my area this week (SE).
That said, I doubt the pace of transactions is going to return to normal for a while. Distancing and home-working will likely play a role, but I'd expect lenders to keep their brakes on lending while they wait for the economic impacts to flow through to affordability, once government job retention schemes and debt repayment holidays end.