With another national lockdown announced yesterday by the PM the Uk property market is creaking under the strains of the lockdown as agents struggle to conduct business, solicitors struggle with the logistics of transacting sales with staff working often remotely and yet the demand for rental and sales properties remains high.

One thing that has been thrown up as a result of the lockdowns is that buyers and tenants are now viewing properties increasingly by way of video tours rather than in person viewing, limiting direct customer contact.

This new move means customers can see their chosen properties instantly, day or night before making an application or offer saving both the customers and agents lots of wasted travel time. The new system has been complemented by a move to more online doc-sign style paperwork in an effort again to reduce customer contact directly but also to speed up what is a difficult process in the current times, and is likely to be something that will stay with us long after the C19 issues end.

We have noticed an increasing move towards our home buyers and sellers using the online auction service to buy and sell property as most seem to like the immediate nature of the transactions that result. This week we have agreed auction sales on 8 properties in the North Manchester area and all have exchanged contacts with a deposit in days rather than the usual months normal transactions tend to take. The added advantage of selling in auction is that the seller pays ZERO selling fee and so with just legal costs to pay the process of selling is less financially painful for sellers.

The UK is a long way from being Covid free and its likely that the auction route for selling property will become more the norm over the coming months.

For further information about any of our Selling and Rental/Management services including our National Auction please contact our team 0161 763 4141 info@simply-residential.co.uk