“Last week, a London estate agent went on record as saying viewings were down 25 per cent even in early March while a newspaper story yesterday spoke of a 50 per cent drop in viewings,” wrote Graham Norwood on Estate Agent Today. That was a remarkable turnaround, coming off the back of Rightmove’s latest market snapshot, which had highlighted how, until a few days earlier, demand had been outstripping supply.

Clearly the market is evolving quickly, which is something you need to take into account if you want to sell. As Rightmove acknowledged, “It is hard to predict how [the] post-election boost in market activity will be affected by the unknown impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus.”

The changing market

That sentence remains true but, with every day that passes, the news is becoming a little less optimistic. We should prepare ourselves for an overall slowdown in the housing market and, possibly, falling prices if businesses are forced to lay off staff, making mortgages hard to come by.

According to The Guardian, “Transactions are likely to freeze as sellers stop putting their homes on the market, viewings stop and estate agents close their doors. So far the impact is limited.”

Part of this will be caused by reluctance among both buyers and sellers to get physically close to one another. Mark Hayward of the National Association of Estate Agents told The Telegraph, “We’ve seen a marked reduction in viewings and enquiries, particularly in the last 10 days, with quite a rapid slowdown,” he said. “People are asking, ‘If people are going to view my property, have you asked the question about whether they have been on holiday lately?’ Will people want to view anything at all, will they want to allow anybody in their house?”

It may be necessary to re-think how you and your agent market your property, at least over the next few months. As Guy Meacock of Prime Purchase observed, “The coronavirus may lead to a change in how we market our homes, with the question being: how do I get fewer people through my door but make sure they are better quality? Vendors clearly don’t want a load of unknown people traipsing through their home so there may be a move towards far more discreet advertising of property from those who still need to sell.”

Listen and learn

In its impact assessment of the coronavirus outbreak, Imperial College predicted that it could take 18 months to develop a vaccine and estimated that “for a national GB policy, social distancing would need to be in force for at least 2/3 of the time until a vaccine was available”. In effect, we are looking at a year or more of restrictions on movement and socialising, either self-imposed or enforced by law.

If you need to move house during that time, you won’t be the only one. While The Guardian’s assessment, above, may well be accurate, new and resale properties will still come on the market, and your forever home could be among them. Indeed, as Nick Leeming of estate agent Jackson-Stops says, “if fewer people opt to holiday abroad over summer, we could perhaps see an increase in activity in this traditionally slower period.”

Whatever the future holds, it is important to keep an eye on the latest official advice, and always act responsibly for both your own health – and the health of those with whom you come into contact.