How COVID-19 is Impacting UK’s Housing Market

Within the UK, COVID-19 and the lockdown have caused the housing market to come to a halt.

People are unable to move house, viewings cannot be performed and estate agents have had to close their businesses.

GetAgent is an estate agency comparison website and it looks at the whole of the UK. It analyses performance through data to inform home sellers of the best agents.

They have presented data in order to highlight the effects Coronavirus is having on the housing market. Data is from the property portals, Google, and our internal metrics, and updates daily.

The dashboard shows that daily property listings have dropped from a peak of 8,551 on February 28, 2020, to just 866 on April 5.

The average number of views per listing has also decreased, along with the number of new home seller leads which are down to four (April 6-12) from 82 (February 17-23).

Search volume of buyer and seller keywords on Google are also down since the middle of February.

The dashboard provides a look at market activity in real-time and updates each day.

Surveys from both home sellers and estate agents have been received.

Home Sellers

The impact of COVID-19 on home seller sentiment is evident, with 42% feeling very concerned when it came to the impact of a planned sale.

Forty-six per cent of buyers said they would not put an offer on a property under the current conditions.

Many are now delaying the sale of their properties. Twenty-nine per cent expect to delay between four to six months, while 28% expect delays of up to more than a year.

However, 76% of all respondents still intend to take their property to the market within the next year.

One issue appears to be communication with the sale process. Thirty-six per cent of sellers are unaware as to whether or not the sale has been suspended or delayed in any way.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, estate agents have said they are reacting well, with an average score of 6.4 out of 10 for their handling and adaptation.

Estate Agents

When it comes to estate agents, 56% ranked their concern to the impact on the overall housing market at a 10.

Eighty-eight per cent have chosen not to conduct in-person valuations while social distancing measures are in place.

Over 50% of the agents surveyed have furloughed over 81% of their employees, while 68% had also significantly reduced advertising and 50% were extremely concerned over cash flow in the next month.

There are 55% who see the bright side and expect to make some sales progress, with 16% expecting to make progress on all their current active sales.

Sixty per cent of agents have also continued to market at least 90% of their properties.

Colby Short, Founder and CEO of GetAgent, said:

“Tough reading for the large part, with the impact of the Coronavirus already very evident despite the short time we’ve seen social and market restrictions implemented by the Government.

“It’s clear that many sellers are now refraining from selling and the speed at which the pandemic has taken over has caused a breakdown in communication between seller and agent.

“A very worrying outlook for agents as well who are clearly struggling with the financial impact while trying to pivot and keep a sense of operational normality.

“The silver lining is that confidence remains in the market and many will look to transact as soon as possible, while many agents are also doing all they can to keep the cogs turning for the sales that were already underway.”

The initial outlook is bad but hopefully, over time, the property market will recover.