Keir Starmer has suggested that the property market may need to be put on ice again to quell the spread of Covid-19.
“This is a golden opportunity for our industry to gain the trust of the public,” says one top industry pundit, as estate agents and buying agents share how they have adapted to doing business by the book in lockdown.
The Stamp Duty holiday “is not a dealbreaker for most buyers (especially at the top end)”, says Savills, after surveying 1,300 prime property buyers and sellers.
Lucian Cook examines the historical and global factors that have defined the Prime Central London property market, the current conditions that are transforming the landscape, and what a post-Coronavirus recovery could look like.
There was no mention of a much hoped-for extension to the Stamp Duty holiday in today’s Autumn Spending Review, delivered by Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Residential property has “has so far proven one of the more resilient sectors” of the global economy, reports Savills.
The Welsh property market re-opens today (Monday, 9 November) following a two-week “firebreak lockdown”. Estate agents are unsurprisingly relieved that their doors can open once again.
“It will be difficult to sustain the current [property market] momentum through to the year end,” warns Savills’ research chief Lucian Cook, as he looks at the potential ramifications of England’s second national Covid-19 lockdown – which starts today.
“House building – and its supply chains that support it – should continue working securely” through the November Coronavirus lockdown, say the Housing Secretary, Home Builders Federation and Federation of Master Builders, while “buying, selling and renting a home can continue, in a COVID-secure way, as it has in recent months.”
“Calls and emails come in at all times of day and night,” writes Heather Murphy for the New York Times. “They no longer concern fun or prestige. Instead they focus on fresh water and solar panels. These were not the inquiries they had grown used to. The island brokers are overwhelmed.”
More vendors are cutting asking prices, notes Knight Frank, demonstrating “a flicker of nervousness” in the property market as summer turns into autumn. Such sentiment is one of six key considerations for the market in the coming months…
Knight Frank has looked into how Covid-19 is accelerating design trends and impacting housing delivery, suggesting some key evolutions for the future of the global prime residence.