Market Report

The simplest market report would be Market?  What Market?  But that is not what you need right now is it?

Before the lockdown it was a strange market.  Most properties were letting relatively quickly, some in excess of the asking rent, however there was a significant minority that were not letting and there did not seem to be any pattern to this.

Now we are in lockdown mode the number of enquiries has collapsed, people are only making enquiries if they really do need to move regardless of lockdown. Our enquiry level has dropped from 70-100 per day to less than 10 per day

The continued uncertainty has led to prospective tenants pulling out of moving into property.  Last week four prospective tenants withdrew from their new tenancy citing Coronavirus and the continued uncertainty as their reason for doing this and quite frankly I cannot blame them.

Which leads me on to student lets starting in July.  If you have student property and you have tenants lined up, if they haven’t already, get them to sign their tenancy.  If this crisis continues into June we could see many student tenants look withdraw from their student property especially if they haven’t signed their tenancy agreement yet.  If they have signed you are in a much stronger position, this is not to say that you should be unsympathetic to their plight we don’t want you to be on the front page of the paper with Mike Ashley and of course you need to be as helpful as possible, but a signed agreement gives you an element of protection.

We have seen a steady flow of (mostly foreign) tenants leave without notice or giving a forwarding address. The current crisis means there is little we can do especially if the absconding tenant has returned to his or her homeland.  This means that we have more stock than usual at the moment, especially as enquiries are 90% down and we can only do viewings by Skype.  This crisis will end and when it does there will be a lot of people needing to move.  We expect very high levels of enquiries once restrictions are lifted as people start to get back to normal. So as Corporal Jones would say Don’t Panic!

The sales market is also undergoing a difficult time.  If you are in the process of buying a property but haven’t yet exchanged then the government advice is do not exchange until the crisis is over.  If you have exchanged contracts talk to your conveyancer as a matter of urgency.    If you have a completion date you may not be able to get a removal van.  The British Association of Removers have put the following statement on its website:

The Member should only complete any moves that are underway and immediately cancel or postpone any move that has not yet started. It is evident that our collective and absolute priority now must be on ensuring the safety of the staff and customers of our Members, and of course their respective families, and so all parties must now make every immediate effort to remove the risk for mover and consumer alike at the very earliest opportunity. There will of course be many more questions asked and answers needing to be given over the next few days, but it is imperative that we react now to that very explicit instruction from the PM and we strongly encourage everyone to comply with the instructions issued by the PM, and the subsequent recommendation made by the BAR, and to keep safe and well.

Mortgages are another area of concern.  Two weeks’ ago I was told that a major high street lender was about to launch a 100% mortgage product.  Today the Halifax withdrew all mortgage products with a loan to value over 60%.  If you already have a mortgage offer I believe it will be honoured although if you are self-employed this may differ.  Buy to let mortgages are virtually non-existent.  If you are looking to invest in property it is probably best to wait until this is over

So I am afraid it is all a bit gloomy, but I am not going to leave you in a depressed state.  I listen to the Kermode and Mayo podcast (Hello to Jason Isaacs) and in an interview they had with Tom Hanks before the Coronavirus outbreak, he was asked about the current state of the world and whether he had some words of comfort.  Tom said “This too shall pass” and if it is good enough for Tom it’s good enough for me.  This crisis will finish and we will come back stronger this too shall pass