There has been much speculation as to how the housing market will cope with the Coronavirus outbreak and if this will affect the market in the future. Some publications are reporting a drop in house sales and lettings, this could be due to the fact that viewings and sales are no longer able to continue.
As lockdown came into effect on the 23rd March, we noticed a dip in users with a loss of 20% from the previous week. The government introduced new measures from the 26th March, which instructed people to delay their home moves if possible and to not allow any more viewings. Although we can not prove what this was an effect of, we can hazard a guess that it was the shock and uncertainty which caused these results. This dip did not last long as by the second week we began to see a gradual increase in the amount of users, continuing into the following weeks.
Since the first week of lockdown there has been a 50% increase in users on our site actively looking for properties. The number of properties listed has fallen. This is due to withdrawal of housing stock until we are out of lockdown. Demand for homes is still there and once lockdown has been lifted should see a further increase in activity.
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