The latest results from Today’s Conveyancer’s Sentiment Survey.
Thank you to everyone who has taken part. To take part in this week’s survey please click here.
One month on from the re-opening of the property market, there have been a raft of positive signs that the market is improving, with estate agents seeing valuation enquiries soar 34%, taking levels above those seen before the lockdown. This has been reflected in the sentiments of our respondents, with 100% now feeling that the market is improving.
Instructions, exchanges and completions however, were still below those seen by our respondents the year before. Although half of our respondents were reporting that there new instructions and exchanges were at between 70-90% of the levels seen last year, three quarters of respondents found that completions were below 60% of last year’s levels. This is an increase from last week’s sentiments however, where new instruction numbers were around 15%-25% of instruction numbers for the first week of June last year.
One respondent commented:
“Lots of new business but transactions taking too long because no one has got their act together”
The increase in positivity also appears to be filtering through to staffing.
Last week just under half of respondents told us that 60% or more of their staff remained furloughed, however this week this number has dropped. Three quarters of respondents have reported that up to just 30% of staff remain furloughed, and only a quarter had between 60%-70% of their staff still on furlough.
Half of respondents had not seen other local firms make redundancies, again a sign of firms feeling more positive a month after the re-opening of the property market.
There are still frustrations though that the market has not re-opened in some areas, with worries that this will have a knock on effect.
“Particular frustration that estate agents remain closed in Wales. Also frustrating with lack of lobbying by anyone from the Welsh business industry to the Welsh government. Extremely busy week but the concern is refilling the cabinets with sufficient new instructions”
