Post pandemic everyone wants to move house. Data published last month by the UK Government shows that in the financial year 2021-2022, 438,240 residential transactions took place compared with only 292,090 in the year 2019-20 (+33%).
For the conveyancing sector, these figures provide further evidence of what they have experienced over the past 12 months: business is booming.
The pandemic prompted homeowners to rethink what they wanted from their properties, and in many cases the relevant home improvements were not possible, so it resulted in them moving house.
Some sellers were set on a home office, while others wanted out of the city with increasingly remote working, but for conveyancing professionals this has not been without significant staffing and workload management pressures.
This increase in demand for conveyancing was accelerated by several factors, including a Stamp Duty Land Tax holiday on some residential purchases in England and Wales for 15 months from July 2020 to September 2021 and buyers reaching their deposit targets faster than expected due to savings made during lockdown.
In Scotland, the equivalent property tax holiday ended in March 2021 but provided no relief for hard-pressed conveyancing teams as the Scottish Government relaunched its “First Home Fund” shared equity scheme in May that year. This saw Gilson Gray receiving the highest level of conveyancing instructions in one month since the firm was established in 2014.
The other factor to remember is the enormous amount of pent up “already planned” house sales placed on hold by lockdown, which burst out the gates once transactions could take place again.
Over the summer of 2021, compared with pre-pandemic levels, the caseload of conveyancers at Gilson Gray and, indeed, across the residential conveyancing sector continued to soar. The pressure was growing on experienced staff to cope with more and more work often combined with very high expectations on turnaround times.
However, understanding the pressures during this period is not just about the number of transactions. The pandemic shook the foundations of everything we knew, and confidence in the housing market took a knock. Buyers were wary of large financial commitments and felt even more vulnerable given the speed of regulatory changes made by governments.
Conveyancers found themselves taking on an additional role: listening to concerns, reassuring buyers, and the like. This created further pressures on workloads.
Given the above, attention has turned to firms adapting how they recruit and retain staff. Despite best attempts to keep pace with the market, there are simply not enough candidates to fill posts. This has led firms to step up their efforts to nurture a talent pool to meet demand.
In response to this, Gilson Gray has established an internal “Conveyancing Academy” to attract and promote talent. This new two-year programme offers all necessary theoretical and on-the-job training to kick start the careers of the next generation of conveyancing professionals and provide Gilson Gray with a steady stream of new conveyancers.
We also hope that other firms are encouraged to follow suit in terms of nurturing talent. Given the promise already being shown by the Academy’s first cohort, industry-led teaching is a great way to do that.
I have no doubt that, as part of a properly planned recruitment programme, the Gilson Gray Conveyancing Academy will have a key part to play in future years.
Despite the post-pandemic cost of living crisis, high demand in the housing market remains and seems set to continue, so it is a more important than ever for firms to take a long, hard look at their talent acquisition and retention strategies.
