Has the pandemic changed our property wish list?
Has the pandemic changed our property wish list?
A week ago, in England at least, the housing market was allowed to go back to work.
Viewings, valuations and house moves are now back on the cards. Estate agents could reopen their doors, with the adherence to the usual strict social distancing measures of course, and peer out expectantly for those buyers and sellers who had disappeared so dramatically overnight.
Zoopla estimates that around 373,000 property sales were put on hold during the peak of the coronavirus crisis, and mortgage broker Trussle estimates those that put the brakes on could wait five more months before coming back to the table.
The funds
Mortgage lenders know many buyers won’t be able to pick up where they left off.
1/50 19 May 2020
A dog jumps into the water as families relax at a Lido in London
AP
2/50 18 May 2020
A fan celebrates outside Celtic Park after Celtic were crowned champions of the Scottish Premiership. Hearts were also relegated after a decision was made to conclude the season with immediate effect
PA
3/50 17 May 2020
People on Brighton beach after the introduction of measures to bring the country out of lockdown
PA
4/50 16 May 2020
Police lead away Piers Corbyn, brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, as protesters gather in breach of lockdown rules in Hyde Park in London after the introduction of measures to bring the country out of lockdown.
PA
5/50 15 May 2020
Estonian freelance ballet dancer and choreographer, Eve Mutso performs her daily fitness routine near her home in Glasgow, Scotland
Getty
6/50 14 May 2020
Senior charge nurse Jan Ferguson views artwork “Theatre of Dott’s” by Kate Ive, inspired by Professor Norman Dott and his neurosurgery theatres at the Western General from 1960-2019. It is one of a number of artworks which sit on the walls of NHS Lothians’ Department of Clinical Neurosciences (DCN) which has been transferred into a purpose-built new home on the Little France campus in Edinburgh
PA
7/50 13 May 2020
Team GB’s karate athlete Jordan Thomas trains outside his apartment in Manchester
Reuters
8/50 12 May 2020
Nurses from central London hospitals protest on international nurses day about the chronic underfunding of the NHS and other issues surrounding the health service outside the gates of Downing Street, London
PA
9/50 11 May 2020
Waves crash at Tynemouth pier on the North East coast
PA
10/50 10 May 2020
A woman passes street art and a poster in East London
Reuters
11/50 9 May 2020
Police patrol the beach in Brighton
Getty
12/50 8 May 2020
The British Royal Air Force Red Arrows conduct a fly past over the statue of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in London to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE Day) in Britain
MOD/Reuters
13/50 7 May 2020
Team GB sailor Eilidh McIntyre during a training session at her home in Portsmouth
Reuters
14/50 6 May 2020
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer listens to Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking during PMQs
UK Parliament/AFP/Getty
15/50 5 May 2020
The sun appears to explode over the horizon in this montage of images captured by photographer Nick Lucas near his home in Ringwood, Hampshire. Nick took a number of pictures just a few seconds apart on a tripod mounted camera which were then combined to give the eye catching dawn image
Nick Lucas/SWNS
16/50 4 May 2020
Leeds Green Watch firefighters observe a minute’s silence outside the fire station in Kirkstall Rd, in memory their colleagues that lost their lives in the line of duty
PA
17/50 3 May 2020
Staff at The Berkeley hotel give food to ambulance workers
Reuters
18/50 2 May 2020
One of a small group of anti-lockdown protesters speaks to a police officer as they gather outside New Scotland Yard in Victoria, London
AFP via Getty
19/50 1 May 2020
Bonnie the Llama grazes in a field in the Scottish Borders alongside a sign supporting the NHS as the UK continues in lockdown
PA
20/50 30 April 2020
Colonel Tom Moore and his daughter Hannah celebrate his 100th birthday, with an RAF flypast provided by a Spitfire and a Hurricane over his home in Marston Moretaine. Colonel Moore, formerly a Captain, received a promotion in honour of his birthday and in recognition of the funds, in excess of £30m, he raised for the NHS by walking laps of his garden
Capture the Light Photography/Getty
21/50 29 April 2020
Britain’s Labour leader Keir Starmer speaks during Prime Minister’s Questions, as members of Parliament observe social distancing due to the coronavirus, in the House of Commons, London, Wednesday, April 29, 2020
UK Parliament/AP
22/50 28 April 2020
NHS staff at the Mater hospital in Belfast, during a minute’s silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak
PA
23/50 27 April 2020
The sun rises behind redundant oil platforms moored in the Firth of Forth near Kirkcaldy, Fife. Global oil prices have crashed after the coronavirus pandemic reduced demand, with analysts warning that the oil majors may be looking at one of their biggest quarter-on-quarter profitability hits in history.
PA
24/50 26 April 2020
Frankie Lynch celebrates on the Mall where the finish of the London Marathon was due to take place today after running 2.6 miles instead of 26 miles to raise money for The Running Charity
Reuters
25/50 25 April 2020
A muslim woman walks past balloons outside the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London
Reuters
26/50 24 April 2020
An empty Brighton Pier, closed during the Coronavirus pandemic as temperatures reach 20 degrees in the South East
Rex
27/50 23 April 2020
Farmers work with vehicles to prepare a field next to a field of flowering rapeseed near Pontefract, West Yorkshire
AFP/Getty
28/50 22 April 2020
The Northern Lights, the Milky Way and a Lyrid meteor at the Bathing House near Howick, Northumberland, as the Lyrid meteor shower reached its peak
PA
29/50 21 April 2020
Badger the Border Collie surrounded by bluebells at Shrawley Wood in Worcestershire
PA
30/50 20 April 2020
A dog walker on Blyth beach in Northumberland
PA
31/50 19 April 2020
A piece of coronavirus themed street art grafitti in East London
AFP via Getty
32/50 18 April 2020
Members of the City Specialist Cleaning team spray disinfectant around posts in the town centre of Eastleigh, Hampshire
PA
33/50 17 April 2020
A taped-up bench in the hamlet of Diglea, Greater Manchester
AFP/Getty
34/50 16 April 2020
A woman wearing a protective face mask and gloves walks past graffiti in Bow, London
Reuters
35/50 15 April 2020
A burned down mobile phone mast in London. According to reports, at least 20 mobile phone masts across Britain are believed to have been vandalised and government and telecom sources are increasingly concerned about the impact of conspiracy theories linking coronavirus to 5G networks
EPA
36/50 14 April 2020
The new Nightingale Hospital in Washington, Tyne and Wear, being fitted out
PA
37/50 13 April 2020
Walkers enjoy the bluebells in Wanstead Park in London
PA
38/50 12 April 2020
A woman prays at the closed doors of Westminster Cathedral ahead of the Easter morning mass in London
PA
39/50 11 April 2020
A man jogs on an empty beach in Scarborough as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus
PA
40/50 10 April 2020
Military personnel testing people at a coronavirus test centre in the car park of Chessington World of Adventures
Reuters
41/50 9 April 2020
Posters drawn by children displayed in support of the NHS in a building near St Thomas’ Hospital in London
Getty
42/50 8 April 2020
A street cleaner in front of Coronavirus messaging on Picadilly Circus in London
Getty
43/50 7 April 2020
A jogger on the Millennium Bridge in London, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus
PA
44/50 6 April 2020
A Royal Signals soldier practices during training held by the British Army. They are preparing them to support the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust in the battle against coronavirus
Ministry of Defence/Reuters
45/50 5 April 2020
A police officer advises a woman to go home after spotting her enjoying the sun in Primrose Hill, London
AP
46/50 4 March 2020
New Leader of the Labour Party Keir Starmer speaks on the announcement of his victory in the leadership race of the Labour Party
AFP via Getty
47/50 3 April 2020
Health Secretary Matt Hancock and NHS staff stand on marks on the ground, put in place to ensure social distancing guidelines are adhered to, at the opening of the NHS Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre in London, a temporary hospital with 4000 beds which has been set up for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. PA Photo. Picture date: Friday April 3, 2020. Split into more than 80 wards containing 42 beds each, the facility will be used to treat Covid-19 patients who have been transferred from other intensive care units across London.
PA
48/50 2 April 2020
A child at Westlands Primary School paints a poster in support of the NHS in Newcastle-under-Lyme
Reuters
49/50 1 April 2020
Staff wearing PPE of gloves and face masks, as a preactionary measure against Covid-19, disinfect an ambulance after it arrived with a patient at St Thomas’ Hospital in north London
AFP via Getty
50/50 31 March 2020
Llandudno Pier remains closed and deserted of tourists during the pandemic lockdown in Wales
Getty
1/50 19 May 2020
A dog jumps into the water as families relax at a Lido in London
AP
2/50 18 May 2020
A fan celebrates outside Celtic Park after Celtic were crowned champions of the Scottish Premiership. Hearts were also relegated after a decision was made to conclude the season with immediate effect
PA
3/50 17 May 2020
People on Brighton beach after the introduction of measures to bring the country out of lockdown
PA
4/50 16 May 2020
Police lead away Piers Corbyn, brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, as protesters gather in breach of lockdown rules in Hyde Park in London after the introduction of measures to bring the country out of lockdown.
PA
5/50 15 May 2020
Estonian freelance ballet dancer and choreographer, Eve Mutso performs her daily fitness routine near her home in Glasgow, Scotland
Getty
6/50 14 May 2020
Senior charge nurse Jan Ferguson views artwork “Theatre of Dott’s” by Kate Ive, inspired by Professor Norman Dott and his neurosurgery theatres at the Western General from 1960-2019. It is one of a number of artworks which sit on the walls of NHS Lothians’ Department of Clinical Neurosciences (DCN) which has been transferred into a purpose-built new home on the Little France campus in Edinburgh
PA
7/50 13 May 2020
Team GB’s karate athlete Jordan Thomas trains outside his apartment in Manchester
Reuters
8/50 12 May 2020
Nurses from central London hospitals protest on international nurses day about the chronic underfunding of the NHS and other issues surrounding the health service outside the gates of Downing Street, London
PA
9/50 11 May 2020
Waves crash at Tynemouth pier on the North East coast
PA
10/50 10 May 2020
A woman passes street art and a poster in East London
Reuters
11/50 9 May 2020
Police patrol the beach in Brighton
Getty
12/50 8 May 2020
The British Royal Air Force Red Arrows conduct a fly past over the statue of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in London to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE Day) in Britain
MOD/Reuters
13/50 7 May 2020
Team GB sailor Eilidh McIntyre during a training session at her home in Portsmouth
Reuters
14/50 6 May 2020
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer listens to Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking during PMQs
UK Parliament/AFP/Getty
15/50 5 May 2020
The sun appears to explode over the horizon in this montage of images captured by photographer Nick Lucas near his home in Ringwood, Hampshire. Nick took a number of pictures just a few seconds apart on a tripod mounted camera which were then combined to give the eye catching dawn image
Nick Lucas/SWNS
16/50 4 May 2020
Leeds Green Watch firefighters observe a minute’s silence outside the fire station in Kirkstall Rd, in memory their colleagues that lost their lives in the line of duty
PA
17/50 3 May 2020
Staff at The Berkeley hotel give food to ambulance workers
Reuters
18/50 2 May 2020
One of a small group of anti-lockdown protesters speaks to a police officer as they gather outside New Scotland Yard in Victoria, London
AFP via Getty
19/50 1 May 2020
Bonnie the Llama grazes in a field in the Scottish Borders alongside a sign supporting the NHS as the UK continues in lockdown
PA
20/50 30 April 2020
Colonel Tom Moore and his daughter Hannah celebrate his 100th birthday, with an RAF flypast provided by a Spitfire and a Hurricane over his home in Marston Moretaine. Colonel Moore, formerly a Captain, received a promotion in honour of his birthday and in recognition of the funds, in excess of £30m, he raised for the NHS by walking laps of his garden
Capture the Light Photography/Getty
21/50 29 April 2020
Britain’s Labour leader Keir Starmer speaks during Prime Minister’s Questions, as members of Parliament observe social distancing due to the coronavirus, in the House of Commons, London, Wednesday, April 29, 2020
UK Parliament/AP
22/50 28 April 2020
NHS staff at the Mater hospital in Belfast, during a minute’s silence to pay tribute to the NHS staff and key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak
PA
23/50 27 April 2020
The sun rises behind redundant oil platforms moored in the Firth of Forth near Kirkcaldy, Fife. Global oil prices have crashed after the coronavirus pandemic reduced demand, with analysts warning that the oil majors may be looking at one of their biggest quarter-on-quarter profitability hits in history.
PA
24/50 26 April 2020
Frankie Lynch celebrates on the Mall where the finish of the London Marathon was due to take place today after running 2.6 miles instead of 26 miles to raise money for The Running Charity
Reuters
25/50 25 April 2020
A muslim woman walks past balloons outside the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London
Reuters
26/50 24 April 2020
An empty Brighton Pier, closed during the Coronavirus pandemic as temperatures reach 20 degrees in the South East
Rex
27/50 23 April 2020
Farmers work with vehicles to prepare a field next to a field of flowering rapeseed near Pontefract, West Yorkshire
AFP/Getty
28/50 22 April 2020
The Northern Lights, the Milky Way and a Lyrid meteor at the Bathing House near Howick, Northumberland, as the Lyrid meteor shower reached its peak
PA
29/50 21 April 2020
Badger the Border Collie surrounded by bluebells at Shrawley Wood in Worcestershire
PA
30/50 20 April 2020
A dog walker on Blyth beach in Northumberland
PA
31/50 19 April 2020
A piece of coronavirus themed street art grafitti in East London
AFP via Getty
32/50 18 April 2020
Members of the City Specialist Cleaning team spray disinfectant around posts in the town centre of Eastleigh, Hampshire
PA
33/50 17 April 2020
A taped-up bench in the hamlet of Diglea, Greater Manchester
AFP/Getty
34/50 16 April 2020
A woman wearing a protective face mask and gloves walks past graffiti in Bow, London
Reuters
35/50 15 April 2020
A burned down mobile phone mast in London. According to reports, at least 20 mobile phone masts across Britain are believed to have been vandalised and government and telecom sources are increasingly concerned about the impact of conspiracy theories linking coronavirus to 5G networks
EPA
36/50 14 April 2020
The new Nightingale Hospital in Washington, Tyne and Wear, being fitted out
PA
37/50 13 April 2020
Walkers enjoy the bluebells in Wanstead Park in London
PA
38/50 12 April 2020
A woman prays at the closed doors of Westminster Cathedral ahead of the Easter morning mass in London
PA
39/50 11 April 2020
A man jogs on an empty beach in Scarborough as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus
PA
40/50 10 April 2020
Military personnel testing people at a coronavirus test centre in the car park of Chessington World of Adventures
Reuters
41/50 9 April 2020
Posters drawn by children displayed in support of the NHS in a building near St Thomas’ Hospital in London
Getty
42/50 8 April 2020
A street cleaner in front of Coronavirus messaging on Picadilly Circus in London
Getty
43/50 7 April 2020
A jogger on the Millennium Bridge in London, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus
PA
44/50 6 April 2020
A Royal Signals soldier practices during training held by the British Army. They are preparing them to support the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust in the battle against coronavirus
Ministry of Defence/Reuters
45/50 5 April 2020
A police officer advises a woman to go home after spotting her enjoying the sun in Primrose Hill, London
AP
46/50 4 March 2020
New Leader of the Labour Party Keir Starmer speaks on the announcement of his victory in the leadership race of the Labour Party
AFP via Getty
47/50 3 April 2020
Health Secretary Matt Hancock and NHS staff stand on marks on the ground, put in place to ensure social distancing guidelines are adhered to, at the opening of the NHS Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre in London, a temporary hospital with 4000 beds which has been set up for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. PA Photo. Picture date: Friday April 3, 2020. Split into more than 80 wards containing 42 beds each, the facility will be used to treat Covid-19 patients who have been transferred from other intensive care units across London.
PA
48/50 2 April 2020
A child at Westlands Primary School paints a poster in support of the NHS in Newcastle-under-Lyme
Reuters
49/50 1 April 2020
Staff wearing PPE of gloves and face masks, as a preactionary measure against Covid-19, disinfect an ambulance after it arrived with a patient at St Thomas’ Hospital in north London
AFP via Getty
50/50 31 March 2020
Llandudno Pier remains closed and deserted of tourists during the pandemic lockdown in Wales
Getty
Tom Martin, mortgages director, Halifax, said: “[W]e make decisions based on a full understanding of customers’ individual circumstances and affordability. These are unprecedented times and some customers may have had or expect a change in their circumstances, which we will consider as part of the application process.
“From speaking to customers directly every day, we are seeing the demand to get moving as soon as possible, with calls to our mortgage applications centre up by over a third,” he adds.
“However, we would suggest taking time to do the research and seek expert advice before doing so, as well as heading online in the first instance to find out how much you might be able to borrow, which can be a much faster way of getting the process underway.”
Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown adds that the laborious buying and selling process itself doesn’t help the sense of uncertainty.
“Buying a property is immensely stressful at the best of times, so having the whole process frozen part of the way through has been excruciating. Even now the housing market has re-opened in England, there’s plenty of fresh agony to come.
The economy
“One of the most worrying questions for the hundreds of thousands of people who are mid-purchase, is what’s going to happen to house prices, and whether that means they should go ahead as planned, pull out, or renegotiate,” Coles adds.
“There’s a broad expectation that prices will fall this year. But nobody really knows how far, how fast, or for how long. It makes it nigh-on impossible to be certain of the best approach.”
In fact, house price predictions for 2020 vary enormously. Knight Frank, for example, expects a drop of 3 per cent by the end of the year but the Cebr thinks the fall will be closer to 13 per cent.
“One of the consequences of a big shock like Covid-19 is the increase in uncertainty – over economic conditions, employment, income levels and the housing market,” says Ivan Paya, professor of economics at the University of Lancaster and co-director of the UK Housing Observatory.
“When people face uncertainty the rational step is to delay the decision and I would expect to see a marked slowdown in the number of transactions for some time. People are on standby, waiting to see what happens when the situation becomes clearer.”
The choices
But this all assumes we will, eventually, make the same property choices, based on exactly the same needs, as we would have done before Covid-19 struck. And that may not be true, especially when it comes to work, commuting, and transport hubs – huge factors to consider when chalking up a property wishlist, and factors that may now have altered significantly.
Working from home is set to continue for months as a social distancing necessity. The longer that behaviour among employees and policy among business leaders continues, the more likely it is that we will become a nation of home workers – for a few days a week at the very least.
The Chartered Management Institute suggests 60 per cent of its members already want to split their working week between home and office after the pandemic. That’s a huge shift away from the default of five days a week of office presence.
That change alone could have a significant effect on our property location and size demands. We may not need to get to the office on the daily commute, but we will need space at home to work.
With densely packed urban areas now associated with health risks, are we about to see a move towards lower density locations if the proximity to the office is no longer a factor?
“A shift in demand and preference would come down to a question of the trade-off between location and space,” says Paya.
The result?
“Until now location has been very important, and it’s important to bear in mind that the daily commute isn’t the only factor affecting location, including schools and amenities, that are still important.
“But if Covid-19 changes working conditions permanently for most people we may start to see space becoming more valuable than location.”
So does that mean the property values might start to reflect a movement of people away from urban environments eventually? Will the inner city premium disappear and the divides across regions level out? If so, when?
“Supply changes are slower to come through than demand changes,” Paya warns. In other words, we might all want to cash in smaller homes in urban centres for larger homes in rural locations, but the availability of those homes won’t be as immediate.
“It’s difficult to see a significant shift in less than a year,” he adds. “There are people tied into contracts in one way or another, and factoring in that shift is a big decision to consider among other influences.
“But if a large proportion of the population works from home, we might start to see changes in prices in different locations to reflect that in one to three years.”
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