Coronavirus: Traditional property market freeze as Rightmove halts monthly report

For the first time in its history Rightmove has halted their monthly property report as there as so few new homes being put up for sale.

At the beginning of the year the market was looking healthy, all the reports had been positive there was even an article on the popular property portal how it had been their busiest ever month in January 2020, which is obviously great considering the uncertainty around Brexit.

Queue Coronavirus. It’s been almost a month since the UK ground to a halt with lockdown and the measures put in place by the government to limit, which made the traditional way of buying and selling homes almost impossible.

We’ve written a few posts around these restrictions to help people understand the limitations and hurdles faced during trying to buy and sell during this time.

The news out of Rightmove wasn’t all doom and gloom though, they did mention that sales are still in fact going ahead and the total number of homes have on the market have only fallen by 2.6%, and the vast majority of pre-lockdown deals remain on. It’s just the new deals that have seen the largest effect.

To allow existing deals to continue contracts are even being rewritten with what is being dubbed the Covid-19 clause, which allows completion dates to slip without penalty, which is understandable with disruptions around things like removal services.

Are there still buyers out there?

Despite all the news that you may be reading with the buyers in the market falling off the cliff, it’s not true that all buyers are gone, there are still people out there looking to purchase. It’s mostly the traditional market and standard buyers who have pulled out the market, there are still alternative methods.

If you are eager to sell your home during this period there are a few methods that you may want to explore, which include:

• Auctions – There are still a few auction houses running that will do auctions online, this obviously means that viewings are restricted unless the property is vacant, however there will see be eager buyers if the property is priced right.

• Investors – There are still eagle-eyed investors out there who will purchase property even in this lockdown situation. Your property would have to be appealing to investors in order to sell, which will mainly mean you are willing to take a bit of a reduction in your asking price to make it appealing.

• Sell House Fast Companies – Another option is to use “Sell House Fast” companies, some are still operating, although not all. In order to take advantage of a service like this however, much like the other options, you have to be prepared to take a lower offer than your asking price in order to achieve a sale.

We are still operational and buying property

We are still open, operating and achievably purchasing property during lockdown, however please be aware that due to limitations we may take longer than our typically quoted “7 day” time to completion.

We’re completely honest and transparent in our service in that we won’t be able to offer you full market value, but we’ll offer you a fair value. You can click on this link to find out exactly how this works, alternatively you can fill in our online quote form and we’ll be in touch, usually within hours, to provided you with an initial estimate valuation, which is completely no obligation!