The coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown has been in place for a few weeks now. So will the coronavirus change how the housing sector works? Housing associations and other housing providers have been urged to work from home or to close if that’s not possible. As a result record numbers of people are now working from home and this is now changing how sectors including the housing sector are able to work.
New ways of working for the housing sector
This has opened up new opportunities and possibilities for how people in the housing sector can work remotely and brings about the question of whether or not people will return full time to the office after lockdown has been completed.
Working from home may become the norm for staff who are able to. As many housing workers are now working from home, this opens up the door for potentially working from home in the future. Jobs where employees have been told could not be done from home are now seeing that actually they can! They have managed to adapt the way they work. So this could alter the way roles are performed within the standard office environment.
Although processes may be altered at the minute to accommodate to the current circumstances, no one knows when things with return back to normal. People may stick to these new processes and ways of working or they may go back to old working ways and habits.
Increased remote working in the housing sector is possible
Working from home is something we have always embraced at MovingSoon, so the transition has not been an issue for us. We have seen the benefits gained from working from home for both the employer and employees.
Benefits of remote work for employer
- They no longer have to pay office overheads (a big caveat here is that a lot will have long leases on their current office space, however they may look to re-evaluate this when it is up)
- Employees should be on time as there is no commute to cause potential delays (there are trade offs, however it should help to ease the stress of getting to work on time)
- Increased staff motivation as work is more flexible (understanding about what’s important, possibly increased demand from employers to have a better work life balance)
Benefits of remote work for employees
- Better work life balance (spend quality time at home and doing the things you want to do outside of work)
- No commute so have more time for themselves and also save on travel costs
- Employers are normally flexible with work schedules (an opportunity to potentially go from the normal 9 to 5 for certain roles and map customer needs)
The future of housing sector conferences, seminars, events and meetings
We have seen via social media that a lot of housing professionals have been embracing online meetings since the Covid-19 outbreak. Utilising the likes of Zoom, Google Hangouts and Whatsapp to name a few. This may make the Executive, Housing Directors and Managers to reconsider the value of face to face meetings. Will they be necessary once things return to normal?
The factors that may help to influence this could be:
- The amount of money that will be saved from transport etc. costs
- How successful the technologically that is currently available has been used
- Only a few hours will need to be taken from peoples day rather than wh0le days wasted travelling
- More people may be able to attend if it is an online meeting
- You can have meetings anywhere with anyone around the world
How lockdown might change the housing sector going forwards
Events across the housing sector have been postponed. The Chartered Institute of Housing and the National Housing Federation postponing key housing conferences, seminars and other events due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The obvious changes that have come into the housing sector has been the allocations, lettings and sales staff having to work from home. This hasn’t altered the home buying or renting process as such but the continual lock down steps after that means that there will be no house viewings or new transactions for homes to be bought or rented.
Property viewings via the likes of skype, zoom and whatsapp could be the new norm
A suggestion before lockdown was that house viewings could be done via video link with just the agent being in the property. This is something that is already being done by Believe Housing who have been offering viewings via skype for 18 months. There are now 4 essential reasons that you can leave home for. Anything regarding a sale/potential sales or letting of property does not fit this criteria.
However, after the lockdown has been lifted, this may be the future protocol as people may be wary of unnecessary contact with others. Online and virtual viewings are also a more flexible way of holding viewings as it is hoped that that it will help those who do not live in the local area.
The video calls have already proven to be a success for Believe Housing. During the initial trial period, three families were able to view and move into their homes within weeks.
Interest in the housing market after lockdown
Zoopla have reported that property sales are down by 70% due to the current circumstances. This will be reflective results based on the government guidelines for people to pause house moves and viewings deemed as unessential. This does not suggest however that interest is down, it is just that enquiries can not be taken further than the interest stage at the present time.
