Thursday
I had expected that chains would start to move and perhaps there would be some renewed optimism but that is not what I am seeing – I appreciate that it is only a few days since the market has opened up but I am surprised at how quiet it still seems to be. But unexpectedly I had a call from a buyer’s solicitor – empty house, can we complete today? I was able to get a redemption figure quickly and my client was delighted. The estate agents were still closed but had a set of keys in their office and agreed to meet the buyer at the house at two o’clock, so that was a job well done. And I do think that there are some parts of the system which appear to be a little more co-ordinated. I did not think I was going to be able to complete that quickly as the mortgage lender is one that can be slow at issuing redemption statements but the helpful lady in their office gave me a figure over the telephone so we could complete.
Looking on line, there is talk that there is a ‘stand off’ in the market – there are fears over a price crash , but even so there are apparently 450,000 house moves which have been on hold in the last seven weeks. That is a lot of money to the economy and a lot of people whose lives have been put on hold. Some newspaper reports stated that conveyancers could now open, but I am sure that along with many other high street firms , my office has never actually closed and there has always been someone there to deal with post, scanning, and other such matters. Interestingly, I have also seen that Rightmove have said that 2,150 properties have been added to their site in the last twenty four hours… are they houses where the chains have collapsed during the lockdown period ? or people who have now decided to move? Time will tell in the next week as to what is likely to happen in the market.
It is one of the great secrets of life that those things which are most worth doing, we do for others.
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